11 Ministries, 7000 Firms Owe FG N5.2 Trillion – Finance Minister

A new report by the Federal Ministry of Finance has revealed that over 7000 corporate and private entities including eleven ministries are indebted to the Federal Government.

Details of the debt amounting to a tune of N5.2 trillion were presented on Tuesday in Lagos by the Senior Development Consultant to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Abraham Atteh, during a sensitisation workshop organised by the ministry under its Project Lighthouse programme.

According to Atteh, the programme focused on the debt recovery drive of the Federal Government.

In a report by Punchng, the Director for Information and Press, Federal Ministry of Finance, Phil Abiamuwe-Mowete, described the Project Lighthouse as a “data driven artificial intelligence engine that provides the ministry with intelligence and profiling platform to aid in policy formulation, implementation and the assessment of the impacts of those policies.”

“Project Light-House would support MDAs in developing a more efficient revenue assessment method by ensuring that major revenue loopholes are plugged and revenue collection is dramatically improved.

The Director of Special Projects, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Victor Omata, in his opening remarks, said one of the key economic policy objectives of the current administration, contained  in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, focused on improving Federal Government revenues by targeting and increasing revenues from non-oil revenue sources.