Treasury Single Account (TSA) swells to $13.6 bln- accountant-general

Nigeria has collected more than 2.7 trillion naira ($13.57 billion) in a bank account set up to gather together all state receipts under a drive to improve fiscal transparency, the accountant-general said on Thursday.

President Muhammadu Buhari, elected a year ago on an anti-corruption ticket and who has said he believes officials have stolen around $150 billion from the public purse in the past decade, ordered all state accounts to be merged into one last August.

Every ministry and state body now pays its revenues into the account, held at the central bank and known as the Treasury Single Account (TSA). Previously, ministries and agencies operated more than 10,000 bank accounts with commercial lenders, officials said.

Economic Crisis: Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun Says Nigeria Has Not Applied For An IMF Loan Because It Is 'Not Sick'

Kemi Adeosun

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria, which is going through its worst economic crisis in years, has not turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance because it is "not sick", its finance minister said.

Africa's top oil exporter, which has the continent's biggest economy, has been hit hard by the fall in crude prices since oil sales account for around 70 percent of its income.

The economy grew 2.8 percent last year, its slowest pace in decades, and in March annual inflation rose to a near four year high of 12.8 percent.