The Senate Committee on Trade and Investment on Monday uncovered a Special Economic Zone firm allegedly floated illegally by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
The ministry proposed to draw over N42billion vote for the firm from the 2019 budget.
Following the discovery of the alleged illegal firm, the committee rejected the ministry’s N15.633 billion 2019 budget proposals presented to it for approval.
Trouble started when the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, appeared before the committee to defend his ministry’s 2019 budget.
Enelamah had in the course of presentation of the 2018 budget performance and 2019 proposals to the committee, tabled a booklet containing 2019 budget proposals for all agencies under his ministry.
At the end of the presentation, Chairman of the committee, Senator Sabo Mohammed, referred him to item 2 on page 7 of the booklet, which has N42.091billion budgetary allocation for Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company not known to be one of the 17 agencies under the Ministry.
The minister explained the company was established through the Presidential initiative and approval given for it at a cabinet meeting in May 2018.
He said: “One of the areas that this government has focused on is infrastructure. The second area is industrialisation 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.”
Asked to explain the owners of the company, the minister listed the Federal Government and other shareholders.
The committee chairman faulted the minister’s claim that the Federal Government is part of the company.
Mohammed noted that a document obtained by the committee from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) containing information on how the company was registered showed the company’s name is Nigeria Sez Investment Company Limited and not Nigeria Special Economic Zone Company listed in the documents presented by the Minister.
He said: “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 is limited by share which has also shown, gives Federal Government 25% and 75% to the private individuals.”
The minister made spirited attempts to convince members of the committee that the initiative was driven by the Federal Government.
The conclusion of the committee was however that the process of establishing the company “is misnomer and nothing but financial ambush to Nigeria.”
The committee directed the minister to forward detailed written explanation on how the company got into appropriation list, its management staff, list of its staff and statement of account, before the ministry’s 2019 budget proposal could be considered.
