By Umar Muhammad Puma
The House of Representatives Committee on Industry has expressed displeasure on the non disbursement of over N9 billion yearly investment deposits of the National Sugar Development Council, NSDC to investors.
The Executive Secretary of the Council, Latif Busari while speaking during the agency’s budget defense held at the National Assembly, told the committee that a total of N9.4 billion had been earmarked from the 2018 budget to be deposited in two main development banks namely Bank of Industry, (BOI) and Bank of Agriculture, (BOA) for future investments.
According to him, the expected investment funds to be lodged in the BOI for the fiscal year would be N5.9 billion, while N3.5 billion would also be deposited in the BOA. This, he said, was to enable the funds to be used accordingly to avoid wastage.
However, the Committee queried why the funds were not loaned to investors as supposed.
Members of the Committee further suggested that the funds, instead of laying fallow in the accounts should be loaned to local investors and farmers.
On his part, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep Usani Moriki (APC Zamfara), said the aim of the funds would be defeated if they were not disbursed to investors.
He said: “The aim of lodging these monies are defeated since they can’t be used for the purpose they were meant for. So, urged you to look into the issues and identify the problems. These banks are there to fund farmers. Why the funds can’t be given to farmers. You can’t be telling us that giving out these funds are capital intensive.”
The chairman then asked the Secretary to provide the Committee with the details of the funds, investors and what the banks had done within the periods the funds had been in their custody.
Moriki also urged the Council to on a monthly basis record the sugar levies collected by Customs and amounts released by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF to it.
“Provide this committee a statement of accounts for BOI and BOA investment and provide details of investors who have accessed the loans.
“We need to know if monies meant for sugar development are being sidelined by Customs or CBN”, he stressed.
Responding, Busari said that the funds were actually meant for big investors who were expected to meet the criteria stipulated by the Council.
He added that most investors who had applied for the funds so far did not meet up the criteria and so couldn’t access the funds.
He said: “The banks charge 5 to 7 percent interest which is very low compare to what is obtainable with others. The delay is because they take their time to ensure that the loan application is properly processed. They conduct technical feasibility and financial viability”.
Also giving insights to why the Council expended the whooping sum of N33 million on adverts in 2017, the Executive Secretary said it was to attract foreign investors.
He said: “We are still in the stage of attracting investors. We are constantly on the lookout for investors. This is our key strategy of attracting investors to come into the sugar industry.”
In a similar development, the Committee also engaged the Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON in its 2018 budget defense.
Speaking at the exercise, the Director-General of SON, Mr. Osita Aboloma said that the total budget of the organization for 2018 fiscal year was N11.95 billion.
According to him, N4.049 was recurrent expenditure while N5.12 billion was for capital expenditure and procurement of high technology.
The DG added that N9.77 billion from the budget would be funded from service charge by the Organization.
He however stated that N2.76 billion was expected from Federal Government to be expended on salary and overhead.
He said “we are procuring massive capital and infrastructure development and accelerated technology, develop more testing capacities and make service available to all end users.”
