N500bn Development Fund : Senate threatens CBN Gov, BOI MD, others with arrest

.You’ve failed, angry senators tell FCT Minister, pass its 2022 budget

.We ‘ll address your concerns over 10 percent tax, Lawan assures drink manufacturers

Adekunle Adesuji, Abuja

Senate’s Ad – hoc Committee investigating uneven disbursement of N500billion development fund across the six geo – political zones  by Development Bank of Nigeria ( DBN) ,  on Wednesday  threatened Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and heads of affected financial institutions with warrant of arrest for failing to honour its invitation .

Managing Director of Bank of Industry , Olukayode Pitan, the Managing Director of Nigeria Incentive – Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending ( NIRSAL), Aliyu Abdulhamid and the Director General of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Olawale Fasanya were similarly threatened with warrant of arrest to be issued by Panel for failing to appear.

At the Committee meeting, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Senator Sani Musa was irked by the absence of absence three agencies of the government.

He said: “Out of these five, only two came while the remaining three which are the CBN, BOI and NIRSAL, were conspicuously absent without any letter from them explaining why .

“Assignment before this committee is a  very important one, requiring cooperation and compliance from all those linked to issues at hand .

“MD of DBN and his counterpart from the Bank of Agriculture are here for required clarifications and explanations, making it mandatory for CBN Governor, MD of BOI and DG of NISRAL to appear unfailingly in subsequent sessions or risk being coerced through issuance of warrant of arrest”.

He added that Ministers of Finance , Zainab Ahmed , Trade and Investment , Niyi Adebayo and Humanitarian Affairs , Sadiya Umar Farouq , will appear before the committee on Thursday this week for required submissions on roles played in the alleged uneven disbursement of funds .
However, the Managing Director of DBN, Tony Okpanachi in his presentation before the Panel debunked deliberate lopsidedness in the disbursement of the fund.
He said laid down criteria set by the Central Bank  of Nigeria were used  for fund disbursement .

“Our lending has criteria and they are the same with those set by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said.
He explaibed that for a business to qualify for the DBN loan, it must have less than 250 employees and must not have done a turnover of more than N1.1 billion.
“We do a risk assessment of the participating financial institutions (PFIs) before they begin to lend to businesses. We don’t want to give out money and the money fritters away. So we track the end users of the loans yearly,” he said.
He added that  the location of the registered MSMEs in Nigeria also explained the reason for the loan’s disbursement.

Statistically, he explained to the  committee members that out of the  registered MSMEs across Nigeria, Lagos alone  has 25%, South West 23%, South South 18%, South East 10%, North Central 10%, North West 9%, FCT 4% and North East 2%.

Meanwhile, senators on Wednesday passed a descended on Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello following uncompleted projects across the Federal Capital Territory.

The Senate therefore approved  a sum of N607.952 billion budget  for Federal Capital territory Administration (FCTA) for 2022 fiscal year 30 days to the end of the year.

Breakdown of the budget showed that the sum of N76,565,904,857 is for Personnel Costs and N138,199,851,110 is for Overhead Costs while the balance of N393,182,267,614 is earmarked for Capital Expenditure.

Reacting to the submission by the Chairman of FCT, Senator Smart Adeyemi, Senator Chukwuka Utazi said  the minister of FCT has not performed optimally with the numerous projects abandoned in the FCT

He added that the Central Business District which is  the city centre in the FCT has over the years been congested because of the failure of the FCT leadership to  see to the development of the satellite towns

He urged the chairman senate Committee on FCT to ensure the 2022 budget of the FCT is fully Implemented and projects completed.

Senator Utazi also tasked the FCT minister to redouble efforts in ensuring the development of the FCT is achieved before the end of the Current Administration.
Senator Mathew Uroghide also reacting, lamented that several projects have become moribund in the FCT, especially the Apo to Asokoro road, which has been under construction for over three years.
He added that with the increase in capital expenditure of the FCT, from N188billion   to N399billion, there should be appreciable improvement in project completion in the coming days

in the budget,  Senate approved the FCT  budget following the consideration of the report of its Committee on FCT headed  by its Chairman, Senator Smart Adeyemi.

Addressing newsmen shortly after the passage of the Appropriation Bill for President Buhari’s assent,  FCT Committee Chairman,  Senator Smart Adeyemi listed some critical areas that the new budget seeks to address in the capital territory.

Adeyemi said  the National Assembly deliberately put the Capital Expenditure at 64 per cent of the total budget to ensure that all ongoing projects are completed for the benefit of residents of the FCT.
He also disclosed that a lot of money is earmarked for  education in order to provide more classrooms and other necessary education materials in all FCT schools.

“During our  oversight activities to schools in FCT, we were shocked to discover that more than 80 pupils are put in one classroom and this cannot guarantee quality education. We must ensure that education environment are descent and infrastructures are provided,”; he said.
On infrastructural development, he said that money has been provided in the budget for the expansion and rehabilitation of Lower Ozuma Dam and other dams  to provide water for the residents of FCT.
Similarly,  some of the hospitals in the  territory such as Maitama District Hospital, Wuse District Hospital, Asokoro District Hospital, Kubwa District Hospital as well as FCT Semi-Urban Districts Hospital and FCT Satellite District Hospitals will be given deserved attention.
Also, on the issue of insecurity, Senator Adeyemi said with the passage of the 2022 FCT budget, insecurity will be drastically reduced as security lights would be provided in roads and strategic places in the territory.

Adeyemi however explained that the delay in the  passage of the 2022 budget will not affect the capital implementation aspect of the budget.
Also, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has assured the manufacturers of non-alcoholic beverages in Nigeria that the National Assembly will address their concerns with respect to the implementation of the Finance Act 2022.
The Finance Act 2022, among other things, imposes 10 percent tax on non-alcoholic beverages.

Top officials of major players in the industry, drawn from Seven-Up Bottling Company Limited, La Casera Company, Rite Foods Limited and Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, complained to the leadership of the Senate on Wednesday that the tax burden could lead to the collapse of the sector.
Receiving the visitors in his office, the Senate President assured them that the parliament would look into their complaints particularly with respect to the excise duty.
Lawan said: “I have listened to your submissions. I want to assure you that everything that we do as a government, an administration, we do so to promote, to support, to protect and foster businesses in our country.
“You are the owners of the businesses. You invested in the soft drink industry in Nigeria. But Nigerians are the beneficiaries because in addition to drinking the soft drink, our citizens also get jobs and for those reasons, it is always at the forefront of our considerations and focus that we must enhance the business environment in Nigeria and create ease of doing business in Nigeria.
“Besides, we are also conscious that the world is a global village. There are so many other areas to which somebody could easily move out. We don’t want to lose businesses in Nigeria to our competitors. So we have to have a competitive environment here.
“I have taken note of how long you have been in Nigeria. The fact that you have stayed for 70 years(NBC) tells a story that the Nigerian environment has provided you the opportunity to invest and also reap from your investment because it is a symbiotic relationship. While you are making profits from your business, we are also getting jobs and other benefits.
“I want to assure you that when the Finance Act 2022 was passed into law, we did so unconsciously, trying to address the issues, not to trying to overburden your businesses.
“Actually, the Finance Act is one way of responding to global situations that every country today faces and it is not peculiar to Nigeria. But, of course, when you pass law, you find how efficacious the law is when you started to implement it.
“Maybe we are talking about the 10 percent tax. I have noted what you have said about it. You think It is a heavy burden that can make your businesses difficult to survive. And that is not the kind of consequence that we anticipated or hoped and as a parliament that passed the law, we will look at the law and see how everybody will be protected.
“On one hand, Nigeria needs some revenue. Just like many other countries, even bigger economies are challenged today. But on the other hand, even though we need revenues, we have to be conscious of the fact that we don’t kill or overburden or stress the goose that lays the golden egg.

“We will like the goose to continue to lay the golden eggs so that at the end of the day, it is better to have something coming into the coffers of government than to have capital flight and lose everything.
“But like I have said, it is not something that I can say, well, the 10 percent is off. We will look at it and see how we can arrive at something and accommodation that everybody will be a winner at the end of the day.
“We will work and try to address the issue that you have raised and that we will try to do as quickly as possible so that we have a situation where at the end of the day, you will be happy and Nigerians will also be happy.

“What we are experiencing today is what most countries are experiencing. Even bigger economies are suffering from so many challenges – from COVID 19, now to the infamous Russia/Ukraine war and so on and so forth. But our understanding is that this is not going to be a permanent situation. That these challenges will soon go away. We will try to take very progressive measures to ensure that we address your concerns.”
Earlier, the spokesman for the delegation, Ambassador Segun Apata, Chairman of the Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, appealed to the Senate President for urgent intervention to save the sector from total collapse.
“We have come to you, that the sector is about to collapse. We don’t want to go into the public to announce this is happening to us without placing it before you as leaders of this country.
“The Finance Act imposes an excise tax on all non-alcoholic beverages. In our sector, the taxes we pay – company tax, VAT, education tax – are in excess of over N300 billion.
“Our appeal is to ask the National Assembly under your leadership to completely remove the excise tax and return to status quo ante before pfirst of June this year,” Ambassador Apata said.