Finance and Accounts

FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT

The Department of Finance and Accounts is one of the core services Department of the Ministry. It is responsible for the receipt, recording, custody and disbursement of the Ministry’s funds and for the maintenance of proper books of Accounts as well as preparation of the Ministry’s Budget.

The Department also exercises financial controls and management of the resources of the Ministry to ensure internal checks and Fiscal Discipline. It, in additional renders advise to the Permanent Secretary who is the Chief Accounting Officer of the Ministry on all financial matters in line with financial regulations and other extant rules. The department also ensures compliance with financial Regulations Accounting Codes and all other extant rules on accounting for all public Funds and compiles Ministry’s budget inputs from all Agencies under the Ministry.

It ensures effective budgetary control through proper implementation in line with approved allocations; as well as monitoring of all documentary letters of credit (L/Cs) of the Ministry to ensure that they are genuine and that disbursements on these (L/Cs) are in line with terms and conditions establishing them.

The Department which is headed by a Director, Finance and Accounts also has 4(four) Deputy Directors (Accounts), 8, (eight) Assistant Directors and 163 (one hundred and sixty-three) other staff in its current nominal roll.

For it to be able to efficiently carry out its functions, the Department has been structured into two Divisions viz:

• Accounts Division and
• Budget Division

ACCOUNTS DIVION

This is the Division that handles the most sensitive aspect of the Department’s functions. These are payment of almost all staff entitlements and settlement of bills, to mention just a few. The Division has 14 units/ Sections in the Headquarters which are: Account Administration, Audit Query, Advances, Business Revenue, Business Portals Revenue, Capital, Checking, Central Pay Office, Funds, IPPIS, Final Accounts, Other Charges, Revenue Accounts Reconciliation and variation.

BUDGET DIVISION

This Division has three sections:

• Recurrent Budget
• Capital Budget and
• Revenue Budget

The achievements of this division lie in in the timely preparation of good annual budgets for the Ministry and the progressive increases recorded in the yearly allocations since the coming on board of the President Muhammad Buhari Administration. The division also endeavored to put in place measures aimed at maximizing and optimal utilization of funds in order to meet the needs of the various Departments, in the implementation of their numerous projects are therefore, a reflection of the achievements of this Division.

REVENUE COLLECTION

In the area of Revenue collection, the Department has made steady improvement since the coming into power of the present administration. Being a revenue generating Ministry the Department is responsible for collection of all accruable revenues and has collected accruable revenues from the following sources:

• Marriage Registry
• Expatriate Quota
• Business Registration
• Citizenship
• With Holding Tax (WHT)
• Value Added Tax (VAT)

For the period under review, the Ministry generated the total of N716, 082,874.23 (seven hundred and sixteen million, eighty-two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four naira twenty three kobo) only and has remitted same to the Sub- Treasurer of the Federation.

The Department has also made steady progress in the rendition of accounts to the Accountant General of the Federation. In this connection also, the preparation of up-to-date financial position of the Ministry on a periodic basis has always been followed. This is to brief the Permanent Secretary who is the Chief Accounting Officer of the Ministry so as to enable him take decisions on issues with financial implications.

It is also worthy to point out here that through the Central Pay Office (CPC) the Departments of the Ministry are able to meet up their payment needs. In this regard, the Finance and Accounts Department has contributed to the smooth operation of the Ministry in ensuring the implementation of the Change Policies of the President Muhammad Buhari Administration.