The Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission ( FRC), Mr. Victor Muruako has said that the Commission will always look forward to the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) essentially in the area of human capital development of its workforce.
Muruako stated this when he received the visiting Director of African Regional Technical Assistance Center for West Africa 2 (AFRITEC West 2), Eva Jenkner who paid a one-day working visit to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) in Abuja recently.
While thanking the IMF for considering the Commission in some of its recent programmes in Nigeria, the FRC boss said considering the crucial nature of the Commission’s assignment and the ever-growing need to be in tune with contemporary issues, the Commission will always welcome more support from the IMF.
He said the Commission benefited from virtual training on Public Finance Management which was undertaken by the AFRITAC West 2 in 2022 which he said was indeed very enlightening and practically exposed the participants to more effective Public Finance management strategies.
He also thanked the Office of the Minister of Finance for facilitating the programmes. “It would be recalled that the then Minister, of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed approved for the Commission to receive technical assistance from AFRITAC West 2 (AFW2) in two areas namely, Fiscal Risk Management; and Development of Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF),” he said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic did not allow for the support to commence until April 2022 with the Virtual Training for the Chairman, Management and key staff. This was followed by an in-country mission by the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department held August 2022.
“After the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) mission, eight key recommendations as well as timelines were made to the Commission to strengthen its position as an independent Fiscal Council.”
Muruako briefed his visitors on measures to achieve the legal mandate provided by the FRA, which he said include, Create technical working groups drawn from all Directorates to focus on the main areas related to the mandate of the Commission: revenue forecasting and analysis, expenditure analysis, fiscal risks analysis, and public debt sustainability analysis.
In line with the above, he said, “Six technical Working Teams were constituted namely: Macro-Economic Coordinating Team, Revenue Forecasting Team, Expenditure Analysis Team, Public Debt Sustainability Team, Fiscal Risk Analysis Team; and Macro-Fiscal Forecasting Database Team
He applauded the Teams for undertaking Fiscal Policy Monitoring of the MTEF/FSP and Budget Review and Analysis for years 2011-2021 and the Teams have a harmonized Report as well as individual Team analyses which are in the process of being made into products for circulation to the public and stakeholders.
A statement by the Head, Strategic Communications Directorate, FRC, Bede Ogueri Anyanwu, quotes the FRC boss as saying that the Commission also benefitted from a 5-Day Public Private Partnership (PPP) training on assessment and Reporting on Fiscal Risk from PPP Projects organized by the Ministry of Finance and hosted by IMF/AFRITAC West 2.
He commended the staff of the Commission for having commenced putting to use the technical knowledge shared by teams.
He expressed his wish for better collaboration and plans follow-up training to the FRC in 2024 as well as other interventions during the years 2024/2025.
He pleaded with IMF team to continue to support the Commission and to assist them in delivering on their very important mandate of ensuring a transparent and accountable government financial management framework for Nigeria.
In her response, the Director of African Regional Technical Assistance Center for West Africa 2 (AFRITEC West 2) Eva Jenkner said that IMF has a long-established collaboration with the Commission and explained that the purpose of the visit was to appreciate how far the Commission has been able to utilise the earlier support provided by AFRTEC West 2 and ascertain the next steps to take for better results.
She said AFRITEC has been in some African Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia etc for the past 10 years.