The federal government yesterday announced that it has recovered additional sum of N793billion from three agencies.
The funds were recovered by the Recovery Committee set up two weeks ago by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.
According to a statement that was signed by director of information in the ministry of finance, Salisu Dambatta, the recoveries were made from the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) N278 million; Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) N407 million and Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) N108 million.
The latest recovery brings the total money recovered under the operation to N1.44 billion. The sum of N650 million was earlier recovered from the Nigeria Shippers Council. Dambatta also disclosed that several other agencies were in the process of submitting repayment plan for approval.
The Minister of Finance had accused many of the federal government agencies of not remitting a huge part of their operating surpluses of about N450 billion for the period of 2010 to 2015 fiscal year to the federation account.
Adeosun who had threatened the defaulting agencies with prosecution said, “We expect greater compliance in the weeks ahead.”
The agencies are required to pay the operating surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government not later than one month following the statutory deadline for publishing each corporation’s account as provided in Section 22 (2) of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission Act 2007.
Meanwhile, the federal government has announced the restructuring of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) programme into a multimedia-based programme and relaunched it as YouWinConnect, with a focus on supporting young entrepreneurs with fresh business management ideas for sustainability.
Adeosun had hinted that the government, which was a brain child of the previous administration, would be restructured to improve its performance and sustainability of small and medium businesses start-ups.
Speaking during the launching of the programme, the Minister said the programme designed to support young entrepreneurs “as they PLAN, START and GROW their businesses by delivering to them enterprise management education and skills as well as Franchise Development Online, through Radio and Television.”
The YouWinConnect! Programme, which replaces the YouWin programme aims to promote entrepreneurship as well as viable career options for young Nigerians thereby creating jobs, wealth and contributing to the concerted efforts of pulling Nigeria out of the ebbing current economic recession.
Under YouWinConnect!, the Federal Ministry of Finance, which runs the scheme, would organize and focus training programmes for young entrepreneurs to boost their capacity in business management skills including book keeping, reinvesting profits, avoiding unnecessary debts and the ability to identify and key into new business opportunities.
Mrs. Adeosun assured the beneficiaries and other stakeholders of the old YouWin programme during the consultations in July 2016 that it would be restructured and refocused for greater efficiency and impact by supporting young Nigerians to start and manage their own enterprises in sustainable manner, and contribute to economic growth and boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
