The Federal Government, seeking to halt an outpouring of allegations of corruption surrounding the Export Expansion Grant (EEG), a government scheme set up to provide waivers and concessions to help stimulate the growth of the non-oil export sector, has put the review of the scheme as priority when it meets today for its scheduled monthly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
Analysts who spoke to BusinessDay recently, dismissed the scheme as “an unnecessary compromise”, after it was revealed that an estimated N37.2 billion was reportedly lost through the use of Negotiable Duty Credit Certificates (NDCs) to cover import and excise duties that naturally would have been paid by fraudulent beneficiaries of the EEG in 2011 alone.
The memo EC(2013)29 containing the review of the EEG scheme will be presented by Olusegun Aganga, the minister of trade and investment.
Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, through her memo EC (2013) 31, will be championing the approval of $1 billion EuroBond, $100 million Diaspora bond and the N80 billion federal government bonds. The federal government bond is to be through syndicated global depository notes.
An informed BusinessDay source who hinted on the agenda of the meeting, said it is possible the plan for the Bond is to use it as a partial guarantee for gas off-take in Nigeria, which is quite crucial to the on-going power reform.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) board has since been inaugurated and it will be safe to say that the sale of the DISCOs and GENCOs is at least one quarter done,” he said.
The cabinet expected to be chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, will also ratify the President’s anticipatory approval for the selection of concessionaire/developer for the reclamation and infrastructural development of Festac phase 2 in Lagos.
There will also be deliberations on the progress and challenges of two ministries, those of Information and the Interior, which have been challenged by security issues in the North, Boko Haram, as well as cases of kidnapping, piracy and oil theft.
CHARLES IKE-OKOH
