Following the global slump in crude oil prices, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has said the Federal Government will henceforth focus on raising non-oil revenues.
She told the Financial Times that stricter enforcement of earnings collection from federal agencies and more diligent bookkeeping were the types of “micro” issues her ministry would focus on to mitigate the effects of crude prices that have remained below $50 a barrel.
Her message chimes with what President Muhammadu Buhari told his new cabinet colleagues at a retreat before they were sworn in; cut down the costs of running government ministries through simple cost-saving measures such as cutting travel and the number of vehicles in convoys.
For years, she explained that a mind-set that the country had oil meant that Abuja had practically given up on collecting the right amounts from other state bodies, as she rattled off a list of federal agencies she said had habitually under-reported their revenues.
“Because of oil, we’ve ignored everything else,” she said.
The minister added that she had already begun “drilling down into the details” with ministry staff members to assess how much parastatals remit to the government.
She also praised the lack of pomp and circumstance at the ministerial swearing in ceremony, a sharp contrast to state ceremonies of past governments.
“The programme was a piece of paper, that’s it,” she said.
“I don’t want to say we’ve been undisciplined. But I’d say, when you have the money, you can be extravagant, flying first class instead of business [class], business instead of economy,” Adeosun said.
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