House of Representatives has resumed an investigative hearing into allegations of loss/diversion of public funds worth N500 million leveled against the Federal Ministry of Transportation and Nigerian Export-Import Commission (NEXIM).

The funds in question are related to the ECOWAS Inter-State Road Transit fund.

Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Rep. Bamidele Salam who presided over the session held in Abuja, underscored the need for both parties to provide relevant documents on the facility in the next two weeks, otherwise, the Committee will be left with no option than to commence the process for the recovery of the fund.

While responding to the audit query, NEXIM Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Abba Bello disclosed that the bank was nominated by Federal Government in April 1998 as the national Guarantor of the Facility, through the issuance of customs bonds, the transit of goods and services conveyed from Nigeria and through Nigerian Customs area to other ECOWAS member states under the ECOWAS Inter-State Road Transit Convention.

According to him, the sum of N507 million is currently in the account of NEXIM as a result of income accrued from the investment made into Treasury bill, while the sum of N170 million has far been expenses on travels to attend a series of meetings for various stakeholders.

He said: “We received a letter from the committee asking for an explanation about the ISRT fund, which, yes, has been domiciled with NEXIM Bank since 2015.

However, the background to it is from 2011. The federal government, in accordance with the treaty that has been signed under ECOWAS for trade liberalisation, appointed NEXIM Bank as national guarantor for the interstate road transport system. What is the interstate road transport system? It is to guarantee goods moving from point A to point B under ECOWAS.

What happens today is, at different borders, when trucks or vehicles carrying goods in trade between two countries are passing through countries, there is usually a time wastage and escort system that has been set when the Auditor General’s Office read out. Now, it is to eliminate that, that a bank, a national bank, is appointed as guarantor, which is to guarantee that those goods that are moving from point A to point B don’t get offloaded within countries that are in between the origin and the destination. So NEXIM Bank was appointed by the federal government of Nigeria to be the national guarantor for the country.

The initial seed fund was actually supposed to be equivalent to $5 million, which is to be domiciled. And that fund is to guarantee when NEXIM guarantees any transit and the goods get missing or offloaded in any port or any country in between, then NEXIM will be called upon to make that payment. Between 2015 and today, a total of actually 500 million Naira has been sent to NEXIM from the Federal Ministry of Transport.

“And we have it. It’s a fund. It’s still sitting there. It’s the seed fund. It’s still sitting with NEXIM Bank. Now, what we have done along the way because as managers of the fund, we try to get the fund to be returned with something. So we put the funds either in Treasury bills or other interest-bearing accounts to ensure that the funds are no more there. If I’m not mistaken, I said today we have about N507 million sitting in that ISRT fund.

“So, Honorable Committee, the fund is sitting there and it’s an appointment by the Federal Government of Nigeria for NEXIM to warehouse the fund and also act as guarantor for the ISRT.”

The document presented to the Committee further showed that: “At the time ISRT was launched on August 7, 2000, at Seme Border, Badagry, Lagos State, the projected cost to operationalize the scheme was estimated at $4,761,904.76 at ($1 to N105) which is equivalent to N500 million. However, no budget allocation was released from the Ministry until 2016 with an initial amount of N20,065,400.

“This far, a total sum of N500,242,712 has been received from the Federal Ministry of Transportation in five tranches between 2016 and 2024 to the account of the Nigerian Export-Import Bank on the seed fund for joint implementation of the ECOWAS/ISRT scheme. NEXIM Bank subsequently invested the funds in Money Market Instruments, in a bid to grow the Seed Fund towards meeting future obligations of the ECOWAS/ISRT scheme.

“Accordingly, please note that the sum of N121,986,463.13 has this far been expended on ECOWAS/ISRT scheme implementation, while the cumulative sum of N161,280,641.20 has been earned as income on investments from March 29, 2016 to April 30, 2025. The balance of the seed fund currently stands at N539,556,890.07 as of April 30, 2025.”

In his address, the Permanent Secretary who affirmed that the project is yet to commence, explained that the funds released for the stakeholders including NURTW and other transport unions were approved by the Minister. (Nigerian Tribune)