Nigeria saves billions with public finance management

The Nigerian government was in a lot of trouble: their public finance management was a mess, accounting was poor or non-existent, and nobody had an overview of how many bank accounts the government had or in which banks. To remedy the situation, we built the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and saved the country billions of euros.

Challenge

Lack of transparency

Despite being one of the biggest economies in Africa, Nigeria’s government finances were poorly managed and there was no clear overview of how much money the government had, where it was kept and how it was being used.

According to the World Bank, budget reporting was opaque and limited, and resource allocation wasn’t aligned with the state’s development priorities. Poor quality and delays in annual fiscal statements were a major problem as in-year budget reporting was either irregular or not done. The system was in a state of chaos.

In addition, the government didn’t have visibility of the number of bank accounts each ministry or government related institution had. This led to rampant fraud.

Solution

Integrated system for financial management

To tackle this complicated situation and improve Nigeria’s reputation among international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the government acknowledged that it was time for modernization. With extensive experience in public finance transformation, we stepped in and built the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).

GIFMIS supports the Nigerian government in all aspects of budget preparation, as well as execution and management of the government’s financial resources. It covers all spending units financed from the government’s budget, and processes and manages all expenditure transactions pertaining to these units.

Budget appropriations, financing limits, commitments, verifications and payment transactions are recorded and managed through a system that is modern, efficient and user-friendly – providing comprehensive information on all the government’s financial affairs. GIFMIS provides a reliable basis for multi-year budgeting, annual budgeting, commitment control, payment control, financial and cash management, and economic planning.

We supported the Nigerian government throughout the entire process of building GIFMIS, mapping their needs, offering change management and training for the users of the system, many of whom had never used a computer before.

– Yemi Osibajo, Vice President of Nigeria

The Treasury Single Account has brought transparency to the inflows and outflows of government money.

Impact

Billions in savings

The value of this project has been immense. GIFMIS has become a true success story across Africa and helped Nigeria take a big leap towards becoming a more trustworthy partner for international organizations and investors.

The reform highlights how technology can make managing public funds transparent and efficient. As part of the transition to the new system, Nigeria moved all the government’s money to a Treasury Single Account (TSA) and, as a result, saved more than 21.6 billion euros.

We are proud to have helped the Nigerian government save billions of euros that can now be used to build a better Nigeria for all its citizens.

13m

Nigerian government saves on average 13 million euros a month on banking fees.

20,000

As a result of the TSA, more than 20,000 government bank accounts were closed.

60,000

GIFMIS helped to reveal around 60,000 ghost workers on the government payroll.

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