Financial Energy Review
by Musa Ibrahim…………….
The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on power has frowned at the inability of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to account for the $11 billion used for the Notional Integrated Power Project (NIPP) withdrawn from the nation’s Excess Crude Account.
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The money was withdrawn from the ECA between 2005 and 2007 to finance the NIPPs.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 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
