By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris said on Thursday that his office has introduced a number of public finance reforms in the management of the economy.
He stated this when the Director-General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS(NACA), Dr. Aliyu Gambo and his management team paid an advocacy visit to his office in Abuja.
According to him, the Office of the Accountant-General has initiated a number of public finance reforms in managing and forecasting of government revenues.
These reforms include but not limited to Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), Treasury Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPIS) which is the platform for payment of salaries to civil servant in all MDAs and implementation of e-service in Nigeria.
In addition, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation supervises Ministries, Departments and Agencies to ensure that the revenue allocated to them are utilized according to public service rules and financial regulations, therefore, the AGF is the life wire of the economy. We are not a bank or a Ministry but we have a strict mandate on financial management of the economy.
He congratulated the Director-General of NACA on his appointment and promised to partner and support the agency because they are doing a great job in curbing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria.
The Director-General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Aliyu Gambo stated that the advocacy visit was to congratulate the AGF for his re-appointment, and also to get acquainted with him and solicit for deepened collaboration between the agency and his office as it was in the past.
“The situation of HIV in the country has reduced in the past 15 years due to huge national investment”, and that the concluded Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) exercise has given Nigeria the tool to work towards epidemic control based on the credible data generated and which has been accepted worldwide.
“Nigeria can aggressively contain the spread of the epidemic because Nigeria has the capacity and resources to collectively achieve its goal to curb the virus” he stated.
Dr. Aliyu further stated that with the right mindset, Nigeria can control the epidemic because the recent survey has shown that it has drastically reduced to 1.8 million from the 3.5 million which could still be reduced minimally in his tenure.
He acknowledged the AGF as a key and strategic partner in the fight against HIV/AIDS and that NACA will welcome AGF’s contribution towards the sustainability of the fight against AIDS in Nigeria.
