The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has queried the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, on the status of the $470 million loan from China for the installation of Closed Circuit Cameras in major cities across the country.
James Faleke, Chairman of the Committee who handed down this query at the budget defence of the Ministry on Thursday, noted that in most cases when a Chinese loan is granted, it is tied to a proviso that the project and personnel for any given loan are for the Chinese people.
A Member of the House Committee, Herman Hembe, also queried the Ministry on the rationale behind government Ministries, Departments and Agencies budgeting millions of naira annually for telephone services saying that the money is not utilised or returned.
Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, in her defence disclosed that Nigeria was to deposit N1 billion to the Chinese Central Bank for the smooth take-off of the Yuan-Naira exchange programme initiated by the Nigerian monetary authorities for cordial Nigeria-China relations.
The Minister responding to questions fielded by Members of the Committee on why Nigerians are being paid in local currencies at commercial banks when money is sent to them in foreign currencies said the currency exchange programme was to smoothen trade and other relations between the two countries.
She told the lawmakers that there was a need to entrench practices that would enhance the economy and that a bill had been forwarded to the Senate for this to take effect.
On the bailout funds given to some state governments by the federal government for settlement of backlog of salary arrears, Ahmed said that many of them had started paying back these bailout funds to the treasury.
She said the Ministry usually deducted the bailout fund from states that have consistently failed to pay back the from their monthly allocations.
The Minister also said that there was a need to amend the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) Act so that the agency could be strengthened from its present distress.
Explaining the repayment of loans by the Ministry, she said that most of these loans came from China Exim bank and that that they were considerably doing well for the nation’s economy, adding that when those loans were due for repayment, the federal government always repaid them.
