The Senate has said that it would work with the nation’s anti-graft agencies to retrieve N135 billion in Central Bank of Nigeria intervention funds that were given to certain oil and gas companies.
The funds have to be recouped from recipients who have fallen behind, according to the Senate Committee on Gas Resources.
When the 14 impacted firms showed up before the panel on Thursday to justify their use of the loans they had obtained, the panel issued the warning.
The lack of collaboration between the CBN and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources on the project was deemed unsatisfactory by the members.
They also questioned why certain businesses were collecting more than the N10 billion credit limit and why the monies were being disbursed to the beneficiaries in a discriminatory manner.
In order to conduct prompt investigations, Senator Agom Jarigbe, the committee’s chairman, gathered the beneficiary data and project site locations.
Jarigbe bemoaned during the inquiry hearing that money disbursed from the gas expansion and intervention fund had been improperly exploited.
“The committee’s job is to make sure the companies really use the money for the purposes for which they were originally raised,” he stated.
The committee has seen several discrepancies in the procedure, and it may not think twice to enlist the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in order to retrieve the monies.
A portion of the recipients disregarded the directives. For instance, the money’s disbursement is unknown to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
“It wasn’t done correctly; the guidelines stated unequivocally and clearly that they were supposed to evaluate at the ministry before sending the list of the qualified ones to the CBN in order for them to access the loans.”We have also found that, since receiving the loan, several of the firms have not had any operations.
Jarigbe continued, “The committee would look into all of the observations, work on them, and inform Nigerians of the real situation.”
Matthew Agbadon, the Legal Adviser for Lee Engineering and Construction Company, one of the beneficiaries, informed the committee that the publication the committee had made had painted the company in an unfavorable light.
There is a common misperception in the public arena that some people just took advantage of the CBN funds, stole them, and fled, he stated.
That is not at all accurate. As a recipient of that program, we really conducted business with the commercial bank.
“Our application was granted after a conversation at the commercial bank level and subsequent due diligence.
“As an organization, we gained access to the facility based on the application.
“Lee Engineering has over 4,000 people and has been in the oil and gas sector for 32 years.
“This specific project is one of Lee Engineering’s endeavors, situated in Warri, Delta State.
“We are prepared to visit the project today if the committee is willing to do so. Ninety percent of it is finished.
It is scheduled to be commissioned during the first quarter of the following year. We are actually anticipating President Bola Tinubu launching the project, which is the first of its type in this region of the world.
To promote domestic gas use in the nation, the Ministry launched the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) in 2021.
Despite working in tandem with the CBN on the project, the Ministry’s Director of Gas, Oluremi Komolafe, informed the Committee that the Ministry was unaware of the fund’s distribution.
She continued by saying that out of the 150 applications submitted, 69 firms were suggested, and 16 applications are now being processed.
She added that the list of the scheme’s beneficiaries did not include any of the companies whose applications were being handled.
The committee chastised a few of the companies that said they had no dealings with the ministry or the CBN.
They said that because it was a requirement to be eligible for the loans, the recipient only paid interest at a single-digit rate to the commercial banks.
