Senate Committee on Trade and Investment on Monday accused the Minister of Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah of diverting N42 billion of public funds to finance the activities of a ‘private’ company – the Nigeria SEZ Investment Company.
But the Minister insisted that the company is partly owned by the Federal Government with approval from President Muhammadu Buhari and the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
At the 2019 budget defence in Abuja, members of the Senate committee confronted the Minister with documents from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which indicated that the company is privately owned.
The development led to committee’s rejection of the N15.6 billion 2019 budget proposals of the ministry.
The Minister had his presentation on the 2018 budget performance and 2019 proposals to the committee chaired by Sabo Mohammed (APC, Jigawa State) for approval, tabled a booklet containing 2019 budget proposals for all agencies under his ministry.
But after his presentation, the Chairman of the committee referred him to item 2 on page 7 of the booklet which has N42.091billion budgetary allocation for Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company.
According to him, the company is not known to be one of the 17 agencies under the Ministry.
In his response, the Minister said the company was established through presidential initiative and approval given at cabinet meeting in May 2018.
This, he added, also had the nod of the Senate Appropriations Committee, explaining that the Federal Government has 25 percent ownership, while the private sector has 75 percent.
Citing the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, he said a legal backing for the Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company, would be forwarded to the National Assembly in due course.
He said: “One of the areas that this government has focused on is infrastructure. The second area is industrialization and the two have something in common.
“If the government tries to do it alone, it would be extremely tasking. So the President directed that we should bring other partners that can combine with whatever monies we have to build world class infrastructure which led to the establishment of the company in partnership with other investors.
“The other investors are making their own contribution. I agree that it will be appropriate at the right time to seek to get some enabling legislations to back it. It is something that will be nice to have. But it is not something that you need to start. In other words, you don’t start by having a law before you go and deal with the commercial problem, which is do you have other investors interested? So, we have the other investors and I am sure we will come to the National Assembly for legal backing”.
But the committee members faulted the Minister.
According to the Chairman of the Committee , a document obtained by them from the CAC containing information on how the company was registered, shows that the Company name is Nigeria SEZ Investment Company Limited and not Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company as claimed by the Minister.
“Ownership of the company as clearly stated in the document obtained from CAC on the 26th of last month designated as Directors are Dr Bakari Wadinga , Mr Olufemi Edun and Ms Oluwadara Owoyemi.
“The document clearly States that the company is a private company and that liability of the members are limited by share which as also shown, gives federal government 25% and 75% to the private individuals ” he said.
Though Enelamah made spirited attempts to convince the chairman and members of the committee that the initiative was driven by the federal government but they all declared that the process of putting it up “is misnomer and nothing but financial ambush to the Nigeria”.
Other members of the committee including Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, Baba Kaka Gabai, Victor Umeh and Suleiman Hunkunyi rejected the Minister’s explanation.
They consequently directed him to forward detailed written explanation on how the company got into appropriation list, its management staff, staff strength and statement of account before considering the 2019 budget proposals.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
