The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said the Federal Government (FG) has recovered N53.5 billion out of N5.2 trillion owed by Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs).
Ahmed disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at the formal launch of the Project Lighthouse application; debt analytics and reporting platform created to identify tax defaulters, establish their tax liabilities and send notifications to relevant authorities for necessary actions.
She applauded Project Lighthouse and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) for the discovery and recovery of the outstanding debts owed by over 5000 debtors across 10 MDAs.
According to her, “To consolidate on the current effort of this project, a debt recovery application has been built to be monitored by the new Debt Recovery Unit.
“The Unit will capitalize on the effort made by the project consultants to provide the government with up-to-date records of its credit status.
“By harmonising debt records across all MDAs within the country, give debtors access to a platform to view and offset debt in a seamless and secured manner as well as strengthen the institutional framework for enforcement and management of the Federal Debt Recovery plan.”
She also urged all Federal Government-Owned Enterprises (FGOEs) and MDAs to update their list of debtors on a monthly basis in line with the debt recovery portfolio.
According to reports, Project Lighthouse was launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Finance, and data was mined from various sources which assisted in identifying and profiling taxpayers as well as tax defaulters.
