Anger poured freely at the Forum of Finance Commissioners during the Federation Accounts Allocation meeting recently over what was described as the poor performance of the privatized electricity distribution companies. This was one of the high points of the over four-hour meeting held at the headquarters of the ministry of finance in Abuja. It also urged President Goodluck Jonathan to, as a matter of urgency, review the performance of the power firms with a view to improving on their power distribution capacities.
Timothy Odaah, chairman of the forum, said the committee was seriously concerned about the poor performance of the power firms despite various measures aimed at improving power distribution and generation in the country.
Odaah also said the committee demanded explanations from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, over the amount paid as exchange rate differentials into the Federation Account. An exchange rate differential of N8.57 billion was proposed to the committee for distribution among the three tiers of government. But he said that the apex bank needed to provide details of how it arrived at the figure stating that this would form the basis upon which next month’s allocation would be considered and approved. “We questioned how the figure brought to us Tuesday was arrived at and we’ve asked the CBN to give us explanations on the date that the exchange rate took place because it is from there that we will know if what we have is in compliance with what was given us. However, it was resolved that they should go to the drawing board and find out and if the exchange rate differential is what would bear something into this month’s FAAC. This will be a condition for approving the next FAAC,” he added.
According to him, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is yet to refund $1.48 billion to the Federation Account. “We had an issue with the $1.48 billion that the audit report directed the NNPC to remit to federation account for utilization. But when we got here, no statement was made about it and we are surprised about this and we have made it as a condition upon which the approval for next month’s FAAC would be based,” he said.
Bashir Yuguda, minister of State for Finance, while commenting on the $1.48 billion, said a time-frame for the repayment of the amount had been agreed with the corporation. “I have engaged the minister of Petroleum and we have discussed the time-frame on the refund of that amount,” he added