Reps launches probe into N12 trillion DFI funds

• As lawmakers demand accountability, results

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives has launched an investigation into the management of N12 trillion injected into Nigeria’s Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in the past seven years.
This was as it inaugurated an Ad-Hoc Committee to investigate the operations, funding, and performance of the DFIs amid growing concerns over the management of the sum.
Speaking at the inauguration on Wednesday, Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Chidi Mark Obetta, said the investigation would take a deep and objective look into how public funds meant to drive industrialisation, agricultural development, small and medium enterprise empowerment, and infrastructural growth have been utilised by the DFIs.
Obetta disclosed that preliminary public reports and sector commentaries suggest that inflows into Nigeria’s DFIs over the last seven years, including government capital injections, budgetary appropriations, bond issuances, concessional loans, and donor funding, are in excess of N12 trillion.
He stressed that this figure remains indicative and subject to verification, adding that the committee would request audited and itemised inflow and utilisation data from each DFI during the course of its investigation.
He said the committee’s work was a response to rising public concern over the transparency, impact, and accountability of the institutions which were established to bridge financing gaps not covered by commercial banks and to serve as engines of inclusive development.
Hon. Obetta expressed gratitude to the Speaker and the leadership of the House for constituting the committee and entrusting it with a responsibility he described as central to the nation’s economic stability and progress. He said the House’s action reflected its commitment to ensuring that institutions created to drive national development truly deliver on their mandates.
He noted that Development Finance Institutions such as the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, Nigeria Export-Import Bank, Infrastructure Bank, Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, and the Development Bank of Nigeria, among others, have been pivotal to the country’s economic strategy.
However, he said their activities in recent years have raised questions regarding their effectiveness, accountability, and the true impact of their interventions on the economy.
According to him, the committee’s mandate is to carry out a comprehensive examination of the operations, funding mechanisms, and performance of the DFIs to determine how effectively they have fulfilled their mandates and how their resources have been applied.
“Our Party restates that with a deft, transparent and innovative management of resources, economic potentials, comparative advantage and national refining capacity, petrol should not sell more than N250 per liter in Nigeria”.
The PDP called on President Tinubu to save the country from further socio-economic dislocation by immediately reversing the latest provocative increase in fuel price and revisit all life-discounting and suffocating policies of the APC government.