The Project Light House Programme of the Federal Government being managed by Federal Ministry of Finance, has assisted in the recovery of N57bn out of the N5.2trn debt owed 10 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.
The recovery was made through the Debt Analytics and Reporting Application.
The Director, Special Projects Federal Ministry of Finance, Aisha Omar, made this disclosure on Tuesday in Gombe, during a one-day sensitisation programme for the North-East Geopolitical Zone on Federal Government’s debt recovery drive through the Project LightHouse Programme.
Omar hinted that these debts came to the spotlight from data aggregated from over 5,000 debtors across ten Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs).
According to Omar, Project Lighthouse initiative was designed to help solve the intractable and perennial problem of debt recovery by using big data analytics technology.
The Director who was represented at the event by the Deputy Director in the Special Projects Department Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Bridget Molokwu disclosed that the core focus of Project Lighthouse is to leverage on big data technology to help block revenue loopholes, identify new revenue opportunities, optimize existing revenue streams especially non-oil revenue.
She stated that the essence of the initiative was the recovery of debt owed to the Federal Government by individuals and companies through the debt recovery capability of Project Lighthouse engine.
The system,according to her, collects, integrates and analyses data from revenue generating agencies in order to create insightful information for improved decision making on debt recovery.
According to the Director, the importance of the project is leveraging on big data technology to help in blocking revenue loopholes, identifying new revenue opportunities, optimising existing revenue streams especially the non-oil revenue as well as improving fiscal transparency.
According to her, data from Project Lighthouse Programme revealed that many companies and individuals who owed government agencies and refused to honour their obligations were still being paid especially through the government platforms such as GIFMIS and Treasury Single Account (TSA) due to lack of visibility over such transactions.