Reps unhappy as CBN fails to account for $11bn power funds disbursement

BY: Moses olajuwon Obajemu

The Central Bank of Nigeria could not give full details of the withdrawal of the sum of $11 billion from the excess crude account for the implementation of the failed national integrated power projects.

At a House of Reps public hearing on the matter, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was unable to provide the house of the details needed concerning the withdrawals as alleged by the accountant-general of the federation.

The money was withdrawn from the ECA between 2005 and 2007 to finance the NIPPs.

Adebisi Shonubi, a deputy governor of the CBN, who represented Emefiele at an investigative hearing organised by the House ad hoc committee on power sector reforms, only accounted for the N1.51tn as Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility approved and disbursed to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company after the privatisation 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 Stabilisation 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 privatisation of power assets.

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