The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over N1.233 trillion intervention fund.
The lawmakers said during plenary on Wednesday that the various interventions by the CBN “have not yielded the expected economic development, as people who are supposed to benefit from the micro, small and medium enterprises development fund have not.”
The House therefore adopted a motion by Hon Ayodele Oladimeji (PDP, Ekiti) for the probe of the apex bank.
The House noted that the CBN needed to adopt a process that would ensure that the targeted beneficiaries could access these funds without impediments.
It therefore resolved to constitute an ad-hoc committee to investigate the disbursements of these funds, assess their impacts on the relevant sectors of the economy and the performance of the various schemes undertaken by the CBN and report back to the House within six weeks for further legislative action.
Oladimeji said the CBN has over time, made conscious efforts to supplement shortfalls in allocations to the real sector by lending directly to consumers, “contrary to its original mandate of going through commercial banks on issues involving consumer lending, the basic intention being to assist in stimulation of the economy.”
He said the apex bank has so far executed various intervention projects in different sectors of the Nigerian economy running into over N1.233 trillion.
Giving the breakdown of the amount, the lawmaker said commercial agricultural credit schemes got N200 billion; power and aviation sectors intervention fund, N300 billion; micro, small and medium enterprises development fund, N220 billion; real sector support facility, N300 billion and Nigeria electricity market stabilization facility fund, N213 billion.
He said the money was part of the sum of N2.02 trillion set aside by the CBN as intervention fund for operators in the various sectors of the economy to access.
