Anayo Okolie
The ad hoc committee investigating the activities of the federally-owned Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) has promised to unravel and expose irregularities going on in some of the DFIs.
The Chairman of the committee, Hon. Chukwuemeka Anohu and his colleagues, who stated this during an investigative interaction with NERFUND in Abuja, disclosed that the primary function of the DFIs is to boost the economy and bridge the gap in sustaining and financing small, medium enterprises but that the goal of the establishing the DFIs is yet to be actualised.
The committee, however, disclosed that despite huge fund allocated to the DFIs, they are yet to achieve the purpose of especially now that the country is in recession.
The Development Banks in question are the Bank of Industry, the Bank of Agriculture, the NEXIM Bank, NERFUND, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and Infrastructure Bank.
Anohu and his committee members had engaged the banks in their interactive sessions, which they said are so far yielding results. According to Anohu, the committee, however, have demanded extra documentation from most of the banks in question, as further scrutiny commences.
He said the banks’ former MDs would also be invited to clarify some of the spending done within their tenure, bearing in mind that the present MDs were merely appointed for a period of twelve months or so.
Anohu also questioned the rationale in the proposed emergence of yet another new Development Bank named Development Bank of Nigeria as stipulated, saying that the new bank will also be performing the primary activities of other existing financial institutions.
He expressed belief that restricting and putting the right tools on ground would strengthen the ones already established for optimal results. He further stressed that the regulatory body of these institutions would be called equally to account for discrepancies that may arise from the committee’s findings.
