House Launches Investigation into Naira Scarcity Amidst Nationwide Hardship

•Expresses shock over paltry budgetary appropriation to DIA   

•C’ttee demands proper revenue, expenditure details from ICRC, NERC, NSDC, others

Adedayo Akinwale and Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the current scarcity of currency notes in commercial banks to address the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.

This comes as the House of Representatives expressed shock over paltry budgetary appropriation to the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Also yesterday, the House of Representatives Committee on Finance directed the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Agency (ICRC), the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) the Nigeria Sugar Development Commission (NSDC) and others to provide details of their budget performances to ascertain their level of compliance with extant financial regulations laws.

The resolution of the House to investigate the current naira scarcity followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Hon. Uguru Emmanuel at plenary yesterday.

Presenting the motion, Emmanuel said one of the major factors that stimulate economic growth was consumer spending and business investment, adding that cash supply shortages in commercial banks have dire consequences on individuals and the nation’s economy.

The lawmaker recalled that on December 21, 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria by a policy contained in a circular number BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/015/073 reviewed the cash withdrawal limits across all channels to N500,000 and N5,000,000 for individuals and corporate entities respectively, a decision that not known to have been repealed.

Adding that the commercial banks in the country have jettisoned the policy as they hardly give N50,000.00 to even current account holders.

Emmanuel further stated that the cash crunch in the country was hurting economic activities, as entrepreneurs are subjected to long queues and sometimes spend a whole day or two in the bank with loss of man-hours only to get N10,000 and in most cases go back home with nothing, subjecting these class of persons who have no access to point of sale (PoS) that is mostly not applicable in some articles of trade especially in the rural areas to hopelessness.

“This has caused untold hardship to this uninformed populace most of whom are rural dwellers we are representing, hence this cry to protect their interest, as lives could even be lost for lack of funds (cash) to take their sick ones to hospital and sometimes nothing to buy food with.

“While the commercial banks have no money to dispense, the PoS operators have in their disposals up to N1 million in mint to sell to their cronies and the public, and the pertinent question is; where do they get the money from?”

In the meantime, the House of Representatives has expressed shock over paltry budgetary appropriation to the DIA.

The Chairman, House Committee on Defence, Hon.  Babajimi Benson, was of the opinion that there was a need to increase DIA’s budget to be at par with the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Benson disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, when he led members of the committee on an oversight visit to the headquarters of the DIA.

He stated:  “There are three intelligence agencies in Nigeria: the DSS , NIA and DIA. We have looked at the budget of the three and believe the DIA should be getting more because it does not only cover internal security which has allowed the armed forces to come in, but they also provides intelligence from Nigeria and outside Nigeria.

“So they are the only agency that wears those two caps. The DSS is just Nigeria, the NIA is foreign but the DIA does for both. But if you look at the budget of the three agencies, shockingly, the DIA gets the least by far.”

Benson stressed that the DIA was central to the security architecture of the nation, adding that the visit of the committee underscored the importance of intelligence-driven approaches in addressing the multi-faceted security challenges confronting the country.

He added: “So we are here today to even see what they have done with the little they have, but there is a need to drastically ramp up what they get for them to be at par with what the DSS and the NIA.

“This is the recommendation we are taking away and we are going to ensure that Mr. President, the father of the nation, sees it.

“He needs to adopt the DIA as his baby because they need so much potential. As you can see insecurity has gone down drastically in Nigeria and the DIA has played a very critical role.”

In the meantime, the House of Representatives Committee on Finance has directed the ICRC, the NERC, the NSDC, and others to provide details of their budget performances in order to ascertain their level of compliance with extant financial regulations laws.

This was as the agencies appeared before the Committee at its resumed interactive session with key agencies on budget performance yesterday.

The ICRC was directed by the Committee to provide details of all concessionares and the fees charged since 2008, after a presentation by the Director Infrastructure of the agency, Shehu Sani Danmusa who represented the Director General (DG), Dr. Jobson Ewalefoh.

Chairman of the Committee, Hon. James Faleke and members who picked holes in the presentation especially the breakdown of revenue and expenditures said, there was need for the agency to present a comprehensive detail as required by standard accounting and financial practices.

The Chairman, NERC, Sunusi Garba, who also presented the income and expenditure of the agency’s 2023 and 2024 informed the Committee that the main source of revenue of the agency was the electricity market.

He added, “The law provides that we prepare a budget and take just enough from the electricity market to fund our operation. Meaning that the amount we take from the market depends on the budget that we prepare.

“So in the early days of the commission, when the market was a little bit immature, the commission was taking money from the market and the federal appropriation. But in the last, I think one, two years or even three years, the commission has been 100 percent dependent on the workings of the market for our revenues.”

Faleke however interjected saying, “You take just enough? What is just enough? So how much do you take? We want to determine your revenue. So when you say just enough, it’s not a figure.”

The NERC Chairman replied saying financially, as a regulatory institution, NERC was not designed to be a revenue-generating agency which Faleke disagreed because the agency was supposed to be self-funded which the chairman answered in the affirmative.

Faleke added, “Yes. Are there rules? Who is the DFA? Are you the DFA? Where is the DFA? Okay. Are there rules guiding self-funded agencies in terms of deductions, in terms of remittances?”

The Director Finance and Administration of the agency explained that the law establishing the commission provides that 80 percent of the operating surplus at the end of the year should be transferred to consolidated revenue.

Similarly, the Committee also picked holes in the expenditures of the NSDC over its frivolous spendings on non-essential like foreign travels, office renovations while neglecting core responsibilities to develop the Sugar sector.

The Director General (DG), NSDC, Kamal Bakari in his presentation informed the lawmakers that the organisation was being funded principally by the sugar levy and other revenues.