TheCable

Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), says President Bola Tinubu has approved the removal of Abuja from the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

The minister revealed this at a news conference on Friday in Abuja.

The TSA consolidates multiple government bank accounts into a single account or a linked network to manage all financial inflows and outflows.

The federal government began the TSA implementation in September 2015.

According to Wike, the TSA has posed challenges for the FCTA in securing funding for projects, resulting in numerous unfinished projects in the capital city for many years.

He further mentioned that exiting the TSA would enable the administration secure commercial loans for crucial infrastructure projects, a step that has been difficult due to apprehensions about repayment.

“The city is not growing as it should, you have projects littered up and down. Projects are awarded without financial backup,” he said.

“So many projects as far back as 2002. What is responsible? The government joined the single treasury account, where all accounts will be in the central bank.

“Now the central bank cannot give us loans, even the IGR is spent as it comes, you cannot tangibly do anything with it. So I said to Mr. President, if you want FCT to carry out the infrastructural projects, then the best is that we must pull out.

“You’ll see from next year, it will be projects upon projects in FCT. What you saw in Port-Harcourt will be a small thing.”

The minister added that issues concerning “insecurity, no light, and no road” will be a thing of the past.

“You will see the road and you will run,” he said.