By Lizzy Chirkpi
House of Representatives investigating alleged misappropriation of N25 billion import tariff by Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM).
The amount, according to a member, House Ad hoc committee on Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), Hon. Agboola Emmanuel Kehinde, is accumulated seven per cent customs taxes on goods for three years.
The three years, he said are 1999, 2000 and 2011.
Adopting a motion on the floor of the House, the House Speaker Yakubu Dogara had set up the ad hoc committee chaired by Hon. Emeka Anohu, PDP, Anambra to examine activities of DFIs and report back to the House.
In a briefing highlighting the progress of the committee, after members meeting with heads of financial institutions in the country, including NEXIM, Kehinde, who represents Ikole/Oye federal constituency of Ekiti State, said lawmakers decided to institute investigations on DFIs, following allegations of impropriety and non remittances that are being made against them by some Nigerians.
He stated that, so far, the committee is not satisfied with the defenses of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Mortgage Bank (FMB), Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and NERFUND, which he said have made oral and written submissions to the committee, maintaining that for the committee to be seen as having carried out thorough findings, it has resolved to re-invite the heads of the institutions on a date that is yet to be announced.
At the appearance of National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) penultimate week, members queried the agency for failing to recover over N17 billion loans it has so far granted small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).
The committee also asked the agency to furnish members committee with names of the debtors, its 2013-2014 audited accounts, names of organizations the fund claimed it had forwarded to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in respect to default payments and actual figure of funds received from multinationals, how it was disbursed and the names of beneficiaries.
"I can confirm to you that CBN still has case to answer concerning certain activities in DFIs.
"Many of the DFIs are going against their mandates, especially as it concerns matters of loans and collateral. They give out loans, but these loans are not repaid and nothing seems to be done on this.
"NEXIM, for instance, get seven per cent import duty, but for reasons that are not clear to us, they recoined the name and claimed that it's equity contributions from Federal Ministry of Finance.
"Based on their records before us, we realize the amount is N25 billion received between 1999 and 2011.
"We're saying no; it cannot be. We want to know who christened the name to equity contributions. We also want to know why Federal Ministry of Finance is defaulting in paying the equity funds, if at all they have not paid.
"In actual sense, this N25 billion is the money NEXIM got from seven per cent import duty surcharge because many of these agencies have different sources by which they are funded.
"Equity contributions they claim to get from Federal Ministry of Finance is different from the import duty surcharge that we are asking questions on," he explained.
He assured that the committee would do all that is possible to unravel the seeming mysteries around short term guarantees for loans granted by Nigerian banks to exporters.
He said to indicate the seriousness of the task that has been given the committee, panel members would be compiling interim report on their findings to the House soon, while a comprehensive report would be packaged thereafter.
0 comments: