● FG should take seriously allegations of loans granted illegally
Fraud and contempt for probity in public office continue to focus attention of the country, and an otherwise “quiet” agency is in the spotlight: The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
The Federal Government says it is investigating loans obtained by the NCDMB worth $500 million. According to the oil minister, Heineken Lokpobiri, the loans were taken without proper process. For instance, he referred to $20 million loans for a fertiliser factory. But there is nothing to show for it.
Here is what the minister says about it. “There is also the Brass Fertiliser, NCDMB also released $20m, empty field. So, NCDMB has made some very bad investments. In this case, NCDMB has disbursed about $19Om in different equity investments, and none of them, apart from the Waltersmith modular refinery, can you say is worth a good investment. But the NCDMB under my leadership will not do a thing like that.”
Some of the stories present the process of giving the loans into a sort of cynical bazaar. Here him again.
“It is brilliant for the NCDMB to partner with potential investors to build modular refineries, but there are some cases. I give an example: In Bayelsa, there was the Atlantic Refinery that was supposed to be in Brass, my predecessor’s hometown. $35m was paid out by NCDMB, not even one block is there. Normally if the NCDMB is to make an investment, there is a disbursement threshold, but this $35m was released at once. This is the same town that Simbi, the former NCDMB Executive Secretary also came from. When you go there you see an open field, not even one block.”
We see an allegation of plain impunity as well.
“Even when there are documents showing, ‘do not do this refinery of $35m’, it was done against the advice. The money was not paid in installments, it was paid at once. The NCDMB under my leadership is reviewing the entirety of those investments. $190m is almost N200bn, some states don’t have that kind of budget.”
His allegations were a direct attack not only on his predecessor, Timipre Sylva, but also the former head and executive secretary of the NCDMB, Simbi Wabote. Lokpobiri intoned, “So, imagine for somebody to make just one bad investment and then wipe away $35m. In the same location we have the Brass Refinery, we have another $20m; we have $50m of investment. The same man – $35m, $20m, and there is another $50m – one man. He should be in jail. If it’s China, they will execute them, but Nigeria is a democratic nation.”
But the former helmsman of the agency is fighting back.
Simbi Wabote said, “NCDMB does not interfere in the process you go through to obtain the loan. You go through the BOI because it takes the entire credit risk, and for any loan you take, you have to present a bank guarantee, and if you are not able to perform, BOI calls back the loan. So, the $300m that is given to BOI is the best loan scheme that this country has ever known.”
That is why the efforts of the Federal Government to get to the bottom of the matter requires detailed work. The concept of the agency is to ensure that Nigerians own their own resources and persons with special skills and investment acumen be empowered to do.
Bringing fraud into it undermines the dream and confirms the complaints of industry watchers that the oil industry is still under the stranglehold of the foreign experts in spite of the huge resources this country has devoted over the years.
-The Nation
