From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Works to conduct a forensic probe into the allocation and utilisation and outcomes of the N1.242 trillion Sukuk funds raised from 2017 to 2024.
The committee, which has six weeks to complete its investigation, is also expected to identify instances of diversion, inflation or contractors’ noncompliance.
The parliament also mandated the Federal Ministry of Works to furnish the panel with detailed real-time records of all Sukuk-funded projects, including financial disbursements, project statuses and contractor performance as of date and to be updated every quarter.”
This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance by Jonathan Gbefwi, calling for an investigation of the over N2 trillion Sukuk road projects in the country.
Gbefwi, in his motion, informed the House that since 2017, the Federal Government, through the Debt Management Office (DMO), has raised over N1 trillion through six sovereign Sukuk issuances.
The lawmaker added that the fund was geared towards funding 124 federal road projects, spanning a total of 5,820 kilometres across the nation’s six geopolitical zones.
According to him, “the Sukuk financing breakdown includes N100 billion (2017), N100 billion (2018), N162.557 billion (2020), N250 billion (2021), N130 billion (2022), and N350 billion (2023), with indications from posts on various reports suggesting that an additional N150 billion was issued in October 2023, pushing the cumulative total to approximately N1.242 trillion by the end of 2024, pending official DMO confirmation for late 2024 issuances.”
Gbefwi lamented that despite “this significant investment, Nigeria’s road infrastructure remains in a deplorable state, with over 70 percent of the country’s 200,000-kilometre road network still unpaved, as noted by S&P Global Ratings in January 2024.”
Consequently, he explained that without robust accountability mechanisms, the Sukuk programme stands the risk of becoming a conduit for mismanagement or corruption.