The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, summoned over missing $9.5 million interest on petroleum profit tax investment meant to be in the Federation Account.
Emefiele and other directors at the apex bank had been informed to appear before the Senate Public Accounts Committee, but none showed up to the upper chamber. They were meant to answer questions regarding the missing amount.
The $9.5 million interest is accrued from the upstream operations in the oil industry through rents, profit-sharing elements associated with oil mining, royalties, prospecting and exploration leases, as well as margins.
The financial infractions had been raised by the Auditor General of the Federation Office in a report which is being probed by the lawmakers. Part of the findings showed:
“During the examination of transfers to Foreign Excess PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Accounts, it was observed that during the year 2016, amount totalling $6m and $3.5 million were credited to the Foreign PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account as interest on funds’ investments.
“The authority for placing the funds which yielded the above interests totaling $9.5 million in deposit account, the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest were not made available for audit verification.
“This observation had also been a subject of my reports since 2017 without any positive response from Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Records made available for audit further revealed that the balance in the foreign PPT/Royaltt and Foreign Excess Crude accounts as at 28th December 2016 were $0.00 and $251,826 respectively.”
According to the green chamber, it is suspicious of the principal sums deposited, the tenor, and the rate of interest. In light of this, the Senate Committee issued a summon to Emefiele to appear before the legislature latest by Thursday, to corroborate figures in the statement of account and address issues raised by the report.
