From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has said his administration is committed to strengthening the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, as well as expand the deployment of digital financial management systems across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
President Tinubu stated, at the opening of -day ‘National Conference on Public Accounts and Fiscal Governance 2025’ with the theme: ‘Fiscal governance in Nigeria: Charting a new course for transparency and sustainable development,” on Monday, in Abuja.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite, said the government is also working in concert with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to ensure better coordination between fiscal and monetary policy.
According to him, “we are determined to reduce inflationary pressures by addressing structural bottlenecks—particularly in food supply chains—while exercising discipline in public spending.
“Let me be clear: transparency and accountability are not optional—they are prerequisites for fiscal sustainability, thus we have strengthened the role of the Office of the Auditor-General, enhanced the framework for procurement transparency, and expanded the use of digital financial management systems across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. ”
The chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Bamidele Salam, in his welcome address, said the National Assembly was determined to ensure the passage of the Audit bill, 10 years after it was initiated.
According to him,” As Africa’s biggest economy and the most populous black Nation on earth, Nigeria must play a leading role the economic emancipation of this continent and there is no way we can achieve this if we do not make concerted, conscious efforts to recalibrate our fiscal responsibility systems and improve on our global transparency index.
“It is our hope that this conference will come up with clear, actionable, pragmatic and measurable plans to achieve this objective in the immediate, short-term and long-term.
“It is gratifying to report that at a pre-conference dinner held last night, we achieved one of the goals of this conference which is a commitment by both Chambers of the National Assembly to speedily pass the Audit Bill, a piece of legislation, central to promoting accountability in Nigeria but which has been delayed for more than ten years.”