…. As Senate alleges $850 billion crude oil export proceeds repatriation held by JVCs
Nigeria has lost the sum of N23.6 billion due to non-documentation of export of oil and non-oil products in the last 19 months.
This comes as the Senate has expressed concern over alleged refusal by Joint Venture Companies (JVCs) to repatriate crude oil export proceeds worth over $850 billion to the country.
At an investigative public hearing organized by a Joint Committee of the Senate Committees on Finance, Trade and Investment, Gas, Petroleum Upstream, Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, and Customs, Excise and Tariff on Monday, the upper chamber insisted that whoever was found culpable will be brought to book no matter how highly placed.
“The monies involved is enough to tackle the infrastructural challenges all over Nigeria,” Senate President Bukola Saraki stated while declaring open the investigative public hearing on Abuja on the ‘Need to Investigate Pre-Shipment Inspection of Export Activities in Nigeria’.
The hearing was prompted by a motion moved on the floor of the Senate by Abubakar Yusuf in July 2016, where he alleged that there has been gross violation of the Pre-shipment Inspection of Export Act by certain institutions of government.
A deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Usman Ndanusa, who represented the ministry at the event, disclosed that the country had since June 2015, been exporting its oil and non-oil products without documentation.
He said the development followed the disengagement of pre-shipment inspection agents at the various export terminals in the country and their subsequent replacement with agents who were merely asked by the Federal Government without legal and constitutional backing to carry out the pre-shipment work at the terminals.
He insisted that since their engagements had no legal backing, there was no one to undertake supervision of the agents. The development, he noted, left the country at the mercy of agents.
He also disclosed that the country had no control of measurement of its oil and non-oil export commodities.
Besides, he said most of the terminals across the country had no comprehensive metering systems.
Declaring the public hearing open, Saraki, while noting with dissatisfaction the refusal of the Joint Venture Companies to repatriate crude oil export proceeds of over $850 billion between 1996 and 2014, warned the companies against flouting the laws of the country they were doing business in.
He said those found wanting in the development would be made to face the wrath of the country’s law.
“It is therefore worrisome as revealed in the motion that the Joint Venture Oil Companies have refused to repatriate crude oil export proceeds of over $850 billion between 1996 to 2014 which is in total contravention of the Pre-shipment Inspection of Export Act and Article 26 of Export Policy Guidelines and procedures for crude oil, Gas and non-oil goods.
“If the country is good for doing business it simply means the laws of the country must also be respected.
“Whoever is found culpable will be brought to book no matter how highly placed because the monies involved is enough to tackle the infrastructural challenges all over Nigeria,” he said.
He cited Section 11 of the Pre Shipment Inspection of Export Act, which states that “An exporter of goods, including petroleum products, shall open, maintain and operate a foreign currency domiciliary account in Nigeria into which shall be paid all exports proceeds corresponding to the entire proceeds of the exports concerned’, and Article 26 of the Guidelines provide thus that:
“Within 90 days from the date of export, all exporters (whether oil, gas or non-oil) shall ensure that the export proceeds are repatriated and credited into their domiciliary account opened with a bank in Nigeria.
“It is the responsibility of the Central Bank of Nigeria to monitor the repatriation of all export proceeds.”
He said that the event is therefore an opportunity for the Senate to open the books, listen to the Ministries, Department and Agencies of Government involved and the Joint Venture Oil Companies as well as concerned stakeholders who came to provide useful information for the deliberation.
Chairman of the joint committee, John Enoh, said that the investigative hearing was in pursuant to the mandate of the Senate for the joint committee to carry out a thorough and holistic investigation on Pre-Shipment of export activities in the country and to come up with recommendations that will help strengthen its operations and capacity with positive impact on the country’s economy.
Enoh noted that the purpose of Pre-Shipment Inspection of exports Act was to instill probity and transparency in the process, to reduce losses through effective supervision of loading and lifting of Nigerian crude oil and non-oil exports based on quality, quantity and value of the products.
The lawmaker noted that “empirical evidence suggests that exporters of crude oil may not have fully repatriated exports proceeds from the exports of crude oil into the domiciliary accounts held in banks in the country in contravention of the laws governing their operations”.
He noted that the major task before the joint committee was to expose, observed loopholes and put in place a more transparent process.
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