Senate Approves FG’s N338bn Local Debt Payment Request

The Senate on Wednesday approved a request by the Executive for
the payment of N338.9 billion local debts owed by the Federal
Government through a promissory note programme and bond
issuance.

The figure consists of N102 billion as refund for federal
projects executed by Delta and Taraba states; N43.5 billion for
debts owed five contractors, and N193 billion as outstanding Export
Expansion Grant (EEG) claims by 269 companies.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Delta’s share of
the N102 billion refund is N67.9 billion, while Taraba will get the
balance of N34.3 billion.

A breakdown of the N43.5 billion contract liabilities shows that
Setraco will get N37.4 billion, Bouygues (N4.6 billion), and Simida
S and I. International company (N346 million).

Hamadala Homes and Agency Ltd. will get N346 million, while the
balance of N960 million goes to LEJMEJ Nigeria Ltd.

The Senate approval followed the submission and presentation of
the report of its adhoc committee chaired by Sen. Francis
Alimikhena (Edo North) which worked on the executive request.

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Presenting the report, Alimikhena said the committee was
furnished by justifiable details of all claims submitted by
representatives of Delta and Taraba states, beneficiaries of the
EEG scheme and the contractors.

The details, according to him, include the Federal Government’s
approval through its Ministry of Works for the highway projects
executed by the two states.

Others are contract agreements between the state governments and
the contractors that handled the projects, and evidence of payments
to the contractors.

Also received by the committee, Alimikhena added, were
certificates of project completion and evidence of part payments
made by various MDAs to the five contractors, among others.

The senator said after exhaustive deliberations on the
submissions and presentations, the committee found that the federal
highways constructed by the states were in deplorable conditions
before the intervention.

He said beneficiaries of the EEG scheme had not been paid since
2007 up to the compilation period in 2016/2017.

“The backlog in disbursement of the EEG claims seriously
affected the liquidity strength of most of the companies which has
resulted in difficulty of loan repayment and meeting employees
obligations.

“Contractors that appeared before the committee justified their
claims by presenting all supporting documents including evidence of
part payments received,” he said.

The committee, therefore, recommended that the president’s
request be granted for the settlement of the debts.

Some senators, including Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto), Emmanuel Bwacha
(Taraba) and Barnabas Gemade (Benue), supported the motion for
approval of the recommendations.

However, Gemade urged the committee to request for evidence of
the income earned by the country from the exports claimed to have
been promoted by the benefiting companies.

“I believe the item on the exports expansion grant should be
reconsidered by the committee because we don’t even know how much
income a company asking for N7 billion for exports promoted has
brought to the nation.

“We know there is a huge amount of funds around this EEG, and we
should not push things unnecessarily,” he said.

But his argument fell on deaf ears as the Deputy President of
the Senate, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the sitting, put
the recommendations to a voice vote and it was approved.

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