Reps are upset with NBET for paying the Azura power firm $30 million each month.

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

The Finance Committee for the House of Representatives expressed its displeasure with Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) on Friday for sanctioning $33 million per month for Azura Power Company. The committee deemed the sum ridiculous and added that Nigerians had such subpar power delivery.

In an interactive session with the Managing Director of NBET, Nnaemeka Eweluka, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. James Faleke (APC, Lagos), also accused Eweluka of not following due process by not getting the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) approval in the deal.

When Faleke was the agency’s general counsel, he claimed that the MD at the time deleted a clause of the transaction that needed FEC approval, even against the advice of the minister of justice at the time.

Additionally, he informed the agency chief that the real payment made was $33 million, not the previously reported $30 million.

“On behalf of Nigerians, we are disturbed by the contracts you made with power producing firms and the fact that Nigerians are not receiving this power,” he added.

As a committee, we are curious to learn whether the officers in charge of these agencies, who signed contracts on Nigerians’ behalf, took all necessary factors into account.

It is the circumstance in which we find ourselves, and the sooner we, as the administrators of governmental institutions, realize this, the better for this nation.

People complain that Nigeria is borrowing money, but those of us in charge of managing revenue and costs are only playing to the crowd in order to further our own interests.

absolute impunity If an investor approaches and says he wants to invest in power, that investor must have conducted his own survey to ensure that there are consumers accessible to use his power before investing. It is only about business.

“What duty do we have to him when we purchase the power from him? Let him sell the people’s power. At first, Nigerians supported us because they thought we needed to get involved in the power business. But we remain in our current position. Due to a lack of industries, there are millions of Nigerians without jobs who are also not in school. I wanted to know if you were happy with the value for your money, so I inquired. Why are we spending so much money while we lack the ability for industries to establish themselves?

“I submit to you that you deleted a specific clause that needed FEC clearance while you were general counsel. You removed it. I’ll give you the proof in the form of documents.

The necessity of signing an agreement implied that you required the Ministry of Justice’s endorsement or counsel. The then-Minister responded to one of your communications with the Ministry of Justice by saying, “I do not agree with this. Because it is not in Nigeria’s best interests, do not sign. I’ve got the paper. When it reached your office, you, the Counsel General, removed the clause requiring you to submit any agreements to the Ministry of Justice, and now you are denying it.

“I’ve also heard in your circles that you’ve claimed you won’t hand over the papers and that we’re after cash. We are not on the lookout for cash. There is no funding sought by this committee. Nigeria has to be saved. Why would you, as MD, agree to commit Nigeria to over 22 billion dollars per month at the current rate with FEC approval? If Buhari is aware, the finance minister will be seated here and will approve this. Teachers must be paid, salaries must be paid, yet we are unable to obtain power. After that, we’ll keep paying for another 20 years.

The House chairman also asked to know whether these companies had received a bank guarantee when they signed the arrangement.

The NBET MD, Eweluka, who had earlier stated that there were roughly 25 power purchase agreements in Nigeria, responded by stating that the World Bank had provided a partial guarantee.

“Yes, a portion of the World Bank’s guarantee. A system of contracts is used as part of the World Bank guarantee. The Minister of Finance signs an indemnification agreement on behalf of the government for every global bank guarantee. Every sovereign obligation involves the federal government, and the minister of finance is the one who signs agreements that establish guarantees on the government’s behalf, according to him.

He added that it was challenging to back out of the agreement. Eweluka informed the Committee that the arbitration panel was based in France and added that the Ministry of Justice and Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPP) have to approve any accord.

“Why would you want to exit if you are asking an investor to spend $1 million in your business? There are reasons to end the contract, he declared.

In his decision, Faleke ordered TCN to submit records of all power removed from Azura between 2015 and 2022. He also ordered FIRS to submit tax compliance and payments by all the businesses that have contracts in place with the people who will receive the $30 million.

The chairman also requested that the Gas Supply Agreements (GSA) be reduced from $10 million to at least $3 million by Chiedu Ugbo, managing director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).

It’s interesting that the NDPHC is merely stating that they discovered in the pages of documents that the gas provider you signed a contract with to pay $10 million per month for is static. If you choose to accept, you must pay the $10 million. The World Bank will pay if we don’t. Your rating will decline the moment the World Bank makes a payment. That is what it means. And a Nigerian will appear before us and claim that they don’t need to visit the FEC or anyplace else because all they need to do is sit down in their office, where they will deceive you into signing contracts for Nigerians, committing Nigerians, and getting paid by those same Nigerians (NBET). It is blatantly nasty and arrogant. We have only just begun. It will be more explosive by the following week. I can make that promise,” he said.