The audit report on the alleged $10.8bn
missing from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
will be ready in November, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, has said.
The minister spoke at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2014 in London on Monday.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “Initially, it was
$48bn, then $20bn; but the figure we have always had is $10.8bn. I am
the Minister of Finance; if money is missing, I want it – to use it for
good things for the country and that was why when we went to the Senate;
we demanded for forensic audit. The President supported it and asked
for it to be done.
“We engaged PwC with the Auditor General
of the Federation taking the lead. They asked for 16 weeks to complete
the work; they have spent 11 or 12 weeks so far and they will be done in
a couple of weeks.”
The former Governor of the Central Bank
of Nigeria, who is now the Emir of Kano, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, had
raised an alarm that the NNPC could not account for $48bn that should
have gone into the Federation Account.
A committee established that the
unaccounted fund was $10.8bn; Sanusi later said it was $20bn, but was
suspended by President Goodluck Jonathan in the wake of the controversy,
just months to the completion of his tenure.
On the Ebola Virus Disease,
Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria needed to be commended for the efforts it
made in ensuring that the index case did not take the illness out of the
country and also for containing it.
She said, “Nigeria did a great service
by stopping Patrick Sawyer, who was Minnesota bound. Ebola cannot be
said to be the real elephant in the room as it has been hyped beyond
proportion by the media.
“We all want democracy, but how do you
get it? It involves money. You must discuss issues relating to campaign
funds. People who sponsor campaigns believe they must get something from
the government when elections are won. These are the real elephant in
the room and we need to deal with it.”
Discussing on a panel on Focus Nigeria,
the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms. Arunma
Oteh, described wholesale and retail trade as the future of the
country’s economy.
She said Nigeria was focusing more on
Small and Medium Enterprises’ development as a way of creating more jobs
and improving the standards of living of the citizens, because it
recognised that SMEs were vehicles for wealth creation.
Oteh said, “I think first and foremost
is the recognition globally about the importance of SMEs because they
are the ones that create jobs. I think there is a greater focus on how
SMEs can be supported.
“In our own country, President Goodluck
Jonathan recently set up an SME council. He set up a job board; all of
that is focused on how we can practically address the challenges we are
facing with the SMEs.”
The SEC boss said to grow the SMEs, the capital market was absolutely important to source funds.
She added, “We need to provide funding
at reasonable cost; capital that is patient so that people can grow
their businesses and banking finance is not patient. What we need is
capital that will be there for a long time; a market-based finance that
is long-term and there is a global recognition of this fact.
