The new government will continue to refund
Federal Ministry of information Nigeria reported on the successful campaign for the return of state assets and money illegally appropriated by individuals, including officials of the previous government, and companies. According to the report of the Ministry, for the past year, the amount returned to the budget exceeded $9 billion, which is very important for countries undergoing economic crisis due to low oil prices.
Favorites year ago the new government of Nigeria reported to be successful. The President muhammadu Buhari in his election campaign promised to end corruption in the country and to return to the state Treasury all those “staggering amounts” that had been misappropriated by dishonest citizens and companies. At the time of the arrival of President Buhari to power the state Treasury, he said, were “virtually empty”. But, as stated yesterday, the Minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed, over the past year, the government managed to return to the budget of $9.3 billion.
“All the funds seized from individuals and companies that they either hid or stole or took or possessed the money belonging to the people— said in an interview with Reuters, the adviser to the Minister of information Segun Adeyemi.— Recovered funds include money being withheld by the officials of the previous government, the money stored in private accounts, the money, gone into private pockets, and money in state officials have declared them after leaving government. The Minister of information Mr. Mohamed added that some funds were withdrawn from companies that did not pay taxes, but they were forced to do this and cover all the old debt on taxes. The Minister said that to disclose the names of people and names of agencies, which was seized misappropriated their funds, he can’t. The leadership of the Ministry also reported that the work on the return to the Treasury funds not yet over. The authorities have to recover the $321 million of the funds belonging to the Nigerian citizens that are in Switzerland, UK, USA and UAE and available to them in these countries assets.
The withdrawn funds to replenish the Treasury, and the authorities hope to use them to ensure that the budget that was approved at the level of $30.6 billion. However, they need another $17 billion, which they expect to receive from sectors not related to the sale of oil.
Alena Miklashevskaya
