The Senate Ad-hoc committtee on uneven disbursement of loans, grants, interventions in six-geopolitical regions by Nigeria’s Development banks has vowed to use legislative power on any agency that ignore invitation to appear before it.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East, APC) made this known at an interactive session for eight development banks including the federal ministry of finance, budget and national planning, ministry of trade and Investment, ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development.
Others include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Small and Medium Enterprises development agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Bank of Industry (BOI) and Bank of Agriculture (BOA).
Musa bemoaned that out the five ministries and agencies invited on Wednesday, only Development Bànk of Nigeria (DBN) and Bank of Agriculture (BOA) honoured the invitation of the committee.
“Out of five invited today (Wednesday), only two, the DBN and BOA responded to the invitation” he said.
He however expressed optimism that the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, will appear before the committee on Thursday to make clarification on roles played in the alleged uneven disbursement of funds in the six geopolitical zones.
The committee noted that specifically, out of loans disbursement by the DBN, Lagos got a whopping 41 Percent, saying this is unacceptable.
Continuing, the committtee further observed that DBN has deviated from its mandate and consequently demanded to know beneficiaries of loans in all geopolitical zones.
“Who are these micro finance banks and their spread. When you concentrate all loans to Lagos, it will increase the pressure on facilities”.
The committee said DBN should avail it the criteria used in disbursing loans to geopolitical zones.
But the Chief Executive Officer of DBN, Dr. Tony Okpanachi while throwing light on the Issues raised said loans disbursement is link to sustainability among other factors.
