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Confusion Has Taken Order As Dr. Okonja-Iweala Faults $1n Diversion Claim.

It was published that the Former minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has faulted the statement made by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of transport, Mohammed Bashar alleging that the $1bn loan from the China-EximBank during her stay as minister was diverted to other uses.

Before you read the relevant part of her statement, note that if her claim is factually correct, then President Mohammadu Buhari will need to be very careful with the people he has around him at the moment. 

Some questions will also be raised about the caliber of people who occupy the very sensitive office of permanent secretary in various ministries. 

The former minister recognised that President Buhari did not make the issue a personal attack but enforcement of due process and transparency in governance. She however alluded to a ‘sponsored media campaign” to make the former minister the culprit by all means. 

Now to the facts:

“The alleged diversion has no substance for the simple reason that the Kano-Lagos project was not even among the projects presented for funding by the China Exim Bank for several strategic infrastructural projects across the country.

In fact, it was the Lagos–Ibadan rail project, not Lagos-Kano rail project that was proposed in the original application to the China-EximBank. But in the end, no funds were assigned for the Lagos-Ibadan rail project by the China-EximBank.

The fact which can be confirmed is that the following projects which are at various stages of progress are being funded from facilities obtained from the China-EximBank:

- $500m for the expansion of four International Airport Terminals in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
- $500m for the Abuja Light Rail project
- $984m for the Zungeru Hydro-electric power project
- $100m for the Galaxy Backbone project

She went ahead to explain what the Permanent Secretary should have known:

“It is also important to note that even if the alleged project was on the list of China-EximBank funded projects, diversion of any Chinese funds would have been extremely difficult because the terms of the contract and the processes would simply not have permitted such action.

The procedure is that funds for approved loans remain in the China-EximBank and are released directly to the Chinese firm executing the contract only after the presentation of duly certified proof of work by the responsible Ministry, in this case it would have been the Federal Ministry of Transport, based on the agreed milestones.

For the sake of emphasis, the China-EximBank does not disburse money directly to government and therefore the issue of diversion does not arise.” The statement said.

As much as it will be difficult to discuss financial issues in the last administration without “attaching the name of the former minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,” it will be more productive to keep the conversation within the issues at stake.