PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES OF TREASURY SINGLE ACCOUNT IN A DEVELOPING ECONOMY: CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
A treasury single account (TSA) is an essential tool for consolidating and managing governments’ cash resources, thus minimizing borrowing costs. In countries with fragmented government banking arrangements, the establishment of a TSA should receive priority in the public financial management reform agenda (IMF, 2011).

Government banking arrangements are an important factor for efficient management and control of government’s cash resources. Such banking arrangements should be designed to minimize the cost of government borrowing and maximize the opportunity cost of cash resources. This requires ensuring that all cash received is available for carrying out government’s expenditure programs and making payments in a timely fashion. Many emerging market and developing countries have fragmented systems for handling government receipts and payments (Adeolu, 2015). In these countries, the ministry of finance/treasury lacks a unified view and centralized control over government’s cash resources. As a result, this cash lies idle for extended periods in numerous bank accounts held by spending agencies while the government continues to borrow to execute its budget. 

A government lacking effective control over its cash resources can pay for its institutional deficiencies in multiple ways. First, idle cash balances in bank accounts often fail to earn market-related remuneration. Second, the government, being unaware of these resources, incurs unnecessary borrowing costs on raising funds to cover a perceived cash shortage. Third, idle government cash balances in the commercial banking sector are not idle for the banks themselves, and can be used to extend credit. Draining this extra liquidity through open market operations also imposes costs on the central bank. 

Establishing a unified structure of government bank accounts via a treasury single account (TSA) will solve these problems, improving cash management and control. It should, therefore, receive priority in any public financial management reform agenda. A TSA also facilitates better fiscal and monetary policy coordination as well as better reconciliation of fiscal and banking data, which in turn improves the quality of fiscal information. Finally, the establishment of an effective TSA significantly reduces the debt servicing costs (IMF, 2011). 

A TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts that gives a consolidated view of government cash resources. Based on the principle of unity of cash and the unity of treasury, a TSA is a bank account or a set of linked accounts through which the government transacts all its receipts and payments. The principle of unity follows from the fungibility of all cash irrespective of its end use. While it is necessary to distinguish individual cash transactions for control and reporting purposes, this purpose is achieved through the accounting system and not by holding/depositing cash in transaction specific bank accounts. This enables the treasury to delink management of cash from control at a transaction level. Recently in year 2015, the new elected president of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari has introduced and enforced compliance with Treasury single account in the country with the use of REMITA. Nigeria are of divergent opinion as some has hailed the development while other has continued to criticize it. However, this study is examining the prospects and challenges of Treasury Single account in Nigeria.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Treasury single account TSA has a lot of prospects and challenges for developing economy. In practice, the government banking arrangements may consist of several bank accounts which can be at both the central bank and commercial banks. However, the balances in commercial banks should be cleared every day and all government cash balances should be consolidated in one central account—the TSA main account—of the treasury at the central bank. However, Issues related to cash management should not be confused with issues related to the distribution of responsibilities for accounting control and administration of the payment system. A TSA can operate with both centralized and decentralized (or deconcentrated) transaction processing and accounting control systems. 

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:

1. To examine the prospects of Treasury Single Account in a developing economy.
2. To examine the challenges of Treasury Single Account in a developing economy.
3. To identify the effectiveness of Treasury Single Account in Nigeria.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the prospects of Treasury Single Account in a developing economy?
2. What are the challenges of Treasury Single Account in a developing economy?
3. What is the effectiveness of Treasury Single Account in Nigeria?

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the significance of this study:

1. The outcome of this study will educate the Nigeria populace on the prospects and challenges of Treasury Single Account TSA on Nigerian economy.
2. This research will be a contribution to the body of literature in the area of the effect of personality trait on student’s academic performance, thereby constituting the empirical literature for future research in the subject area.

1.7   SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study will cover the benefits and the limitations of Treasury single account on Nigeria economy
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

REFERENCES 
Adeolu I. A. (2015). Understanding The Treasury Single Account (TSA) System – Things You Should Know.   Business & Economy, Market Development.
CBN (2015) “Revised Guidelines for compliance with Treasury Single Account by Banks in Nigeria

IMF (2011): IMF working Paper: Treasury Single Account: Concept, Design, and Implementation Issues