The Director General, Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES in Abuja on Tuesday, said the money is intact at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on October 5 said the fund, which was over-subscribed at about N105 billion, would support the government’s capital spending on 25 road projects in the country’s six geo-political zones.
Mrs. Adeosun spoke at the symbolic public presentation of the cheque for the funds to the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in Abuja.
She said each of the zones would get about N16.67 billion for road projects in their respective domains, with North-central and South-south zones accounting for five each, while the North-east, North-west and South-east have four road projects each.
South-west zone would receive funding for the execution of three projects.
However, weeks after the public presentation, the delay in the disbursement of the funds to designated contractors to start work on the projects fueled speculations that the money had been diverted by government to close recurrent expenditure gaps.
The statutory revenue of about N551 billion declared during the September Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC meeting, which left a huge shortfall from allocation for October salary bill of over N224 billion, may have fueled the speculations that the SUKUK fund had been tapped to bridge the gap.
But, the DG DMO, Mrs. Oniha, laughed off the possibility of any such diversion, saying: “SUKUK funds are not monies that can go into general government funding activities.”
“SUKUK bond has a structure and authority domiciled at the CBN, which approves all non-interest transactions. There is a process for disbursement of SUKUK bond fund.
“The process was agreed among the various interest groups, namely the Federal Ministry of Power, Works & Housing (the project owner) and the institutions that disburse funds (Federal Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, others), and the two trustees, representing the SUKUK owners.”
This News was first published on Premium Times