Avoid Unrated Entities, Save Public Funds, DataPro Boss Warns Fed, State Govts

Kayode Tokede

As the federal government moves to upturn a controversial judgment by a court in Paris, France, authorising a Chinese firm, Zhongfu International Investment FXE to seize Nigeria’s presidential jets undergoing routine maintenance in France, the Managing Director, DataPro Limited Mr. Abimbola Adeseyoju has advised Nigerian government at all levels to mandate its agents not to invest in companies without credit rating report.

Adeseyoju, in an interview with THISDAY, said although a statement by a former governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has provided clarity over the business deal that went awry, he, however, said that a credit rating report would have exposed the shenanigans of the Chinese company at the centre of the controversy.

Amosun had admitted that he was deceived into handing over a free trade facility in Ogun State to an investment group from China.

In his reaction, the DataPro boss said “A credit rating report would have established the true position of the company currently causing Nigeria such a big international embarrassment. This is one of the duties of credit rating agencies.”

Calling on the government at all levels to mandate its agencies to demand credit rating reports before committing government funds to any investment, Adeseyoju said the government at all levels should borrow a leaf from the Pension custodians who were forbidden from investing pension funds in any entity that is not investment graded.

According to him, the sharp reduction in bank failure these days could be attributed to the culture of reliance on credit ratings by banks. He added that even the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) would not commit any fund for the host communities to any investment without credit rating reports.

He said doing so would save the nation from all sorts of embarrassment like the case of the Process & Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) versus the Nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and many other controversial agreements waiting to snowball into problems in the future.

“Government should ensure that no agency enters into any agreement with any entity without getting a rating report which will make available a quantitative and quality report on the entity. How could a state government have entered into an agreement which later turned out to be a scam? ” he wondered.

The seizure of Nigeria’s assets came after litigations were initiated by the Chinese company against the federal government and the Ogun State Government due to the termination of the contractual agreement.

In a statement at the weekend, a former governor of Ogun State between 2011 and 2019, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, said his administration terminated the management rights of Zhongfu based on the request of the Chinese Government and advice from the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA).