CBN Fails to Account for $11bn, Reps Kick

The House of Representatives kicked on Thursday as the Central Bank of Nigeria failed to account for the $11bn withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account for the implementation of the failed National Integrated Power Projects.

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, failed to give full details on the withdrawals as earlier alleged by the Accountant-General of the Federation.

The money was withdrawn from the ECA between 2005 and 2007 to finance the NIPPs.

A Deputy Governor of the CBN, Adebisi Shonubi, who represented Emefiele at an investigative hearing organized by the House Ad Hoc Committee on Power Sector Reforms, only accounted for the N1.51tn as Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility approved and disbursed to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company after the privatization exercise.

Shonubi stated that the apex bank, in line with the Federal Executive Council’s approval, granted a total sum of N213bn, out of which N189.1bn had been released so far, while N60.8bn had been repaid by the operators who accessed the fund through NBET.

The CBN also approved the sum of N701bn for the Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilization Facility, out of which N694.98bn had been disbursed as of December 2018.

The CBN boss added that out of the N600bn approved for NBET, the sum of 85.41bn had so far been disbursed based on the company’s advice.

According to the apex bank, the fund was released with a view to enabling new investors to clear the legacy debts inherited from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria before the privatization of power assets.

Shonubi, who noted that liquidity was a major challenge facing the power sector, said all the intervention funds were 100 percent guaranteed by the Federal Ministry of Finance Incorporated on behalf of the Federal Government.