Abuja – The House of Representatives Committee on Industry on Tuesday queried the rational behind the non disbursement of over N9 billion yearly investment deposits of the National Sugar Development Council, NSDC.
Frowning over this development, the Committee also raised Questions during the course of the agency’s budget defence, over the N33 million expended by the Council on advertorials and purchase of newspapers last year.
Mr. Latif Busari, the Executive Secretary of the Council, who hinted that a total of N9.4 billion had been earmarked from the 2018 budget to be deposited in two main development banks namely Bank of Industry, BOI and Bank of Agriculture, BOA for future investments, further explained that the expected investment funds to be lodged in the BOI for the fiscal year would be N5.9 billion while N3.5 billion would also be deposited in the BOA.
This made the Committee asked why the funds were not loaned to investors to put it into useful use, which he replied that its had had been the practice of the Council to avoid tampering with the funds.
Members of the Committee suggested that the funds, instead of laying fallow in the accounts should have been loaned to local investors and farmers.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Usani Moriki (Zamfara State) then said that the aim of the funds would be defeated if they were not disbursed to investors.
“The aim of lodging these monies are defeated since they can’t be used for the purpose they were meant for. So, urged you to look into the issues and identify the problems. These banks are there to fund farmers. Why can’t the funds be given to farmers. You can’t be telling us that giving out these funds are capital intensive.”
Secretary was asked by the Chairmanto provide the Committee with the details of the funds, investors and what the banks had done within the periods the funds had been in their custody.
Hon. Moriki also urged the Council to on a monthly basis record the sugar levies collected by Customs and amounts released by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF to it.
“Provide this committee a statement of accounts for BOI and BOA investment and provide details of investors who have accessed the loans.
“We need to know if monies meant for sugar development are being sidelined by Customs or CBN”, he stressed.
Responding to the issues, the Executive Secretary, Busari said that the funds were actually meant for big investors who were expected to meet the criteria stipulated by the Council and that most investors who had applied for the funds so far did not meet up the criteria and so couldn’t access the funds.
“The banks charge 5 to 7 percent interest which is very low compare to what is obtainable with others. The delay is because they take their time to ensure that the loan application is properly processed. They conduct technical feasibility and financial viability”.
Giving insights as to why the Council expended the whooping sum of N33 million on adverts in 2017, the Secretary said it was to attract foreign investors.
“We are still in the stage of attracting investors. We are constantly on the look out for investors. This is our key strategy of attracting investors to come into the sugar industry.”
Meanwhile in a similar development, the Committee also engaged the Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON in its 2018 budget defence.
Speaking at the exercise, the Director-General of SON, Mr. Osita Aboloma said that the total budget of the organization for 2018 fiscal year was N11.95 billion.
According to him, N4.049 was recurrent expenditure while N5.12 billion was for capital expenditure and procurement of high technology.
The DG added that N9.77 billion from the budget would be funded from service charge by the Organization.
“we are procuring massive capital and infrastructure development and accelerated technology, develop more testing capacities and make service available to all end users.”
He however stated that N2.76 billion was expected from Federal Government to be expended on salary and overhead.
