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AfricaOctober 3 2004

Tighter hold on purse strings

Under finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian ministry of finance is pressing ahead with fiscal reform, reigning in and cleaning up public expenditure. James Eedes reports.
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Control of the public purse is the make or break factor in the success or failure of the Nigerian government’s reform programme. Spending profligacy in the past may have been directed from the executive but it was perpetrated by the Ministry of Finance. The same ministry holds the key to resolving many of Nigeria’s problems: cleaning up public finances, directing spending to where it is needed most and holding all tiers and departments of government accountable for the quality and effectiveness of expenditure.

Finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is at the forefront of reform initiatives. The Harvard-educated former chairman of the World Bank Development Committee has shown a determined streak and a clear vision of what needs to be done. She is also firm in her resolve, doggedly resisting pressures to spend a N327bn ($2.5bn) oil revenue surplus – revenue arising when oil prices exceed the $25 a barrel budget estimate. She wants to set some of it aside to smooth out oil revenues when market prices for oil fall below budget estimates.

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