Senate Flays NAIC Over Inconsistent Financial Records

Adekunle Adesuji, Abuja

The Senate on Monday expressed dissatisfaction over failure of
the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) to provide details of its finances from 2021, 2022, up to the third quarter of 2023.

During the interactive session , Members of Senate Committee on Finance chaired by Senator Sani Musa regretted the absence of receipts to prove NAIC expenditures from revenue claims.

The committee also charged NAIC to provide detailed receipts of remittances said to have been made with the surplus revenue generated in 2023.

In a document submitted to the committee, the MD/CEO of NAIC, Mrs Folashade Joseph while presenting the Corporation’s 2024 Revenue, Overhead and Capital Projections, told the panel led by Senator Sani Muhammed Musa (APC Niger North) that the agro-insurance outfit transferred N3, 847, 202, 032.03 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the federal government in 2023.

She however contradicted her submission by arguing that the organization recorded “huge losses in 2022 hence we were unable to remit for the year.”

Not impressed by her submissions, the lawmakers took turns to appraise NAIC’s performance for the fiscal year, wondering why the Corporation’s fortunes continued to dwindle over three years.

Accordingly, the committee mandated the management of the organization to furnish it with the Corporations’s audited account covering 2021, 2022, up to the third quarter of 2023.

This is as the committee Chairman called for a breakdown of NAIC finances, insisting that the panel was poised to “block all loopholes in the account of MDAs.”

“For a long time the accounts of MDAs have been run as personal property. We want to make a difference.

We want to ensure that the right thing is done, and that this government has what it wants to give Nigerians the dividends of democracy,” Senator Musa stressed.

The Committee also interacted with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and the Equipment Leasing Registration Authority (ELRA), with the management of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) not sending representatives to the interactive session.