…MPC to retain interest rate at 14% — Emefiele***
Where is $500 million recovered from the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s family?
This is the question the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is battling to answer.
The cash was recovered from the family of the late Head of State during ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
It was repatriated from slush accounts in foreign jurisdictions.
The foreign governments, which released the loot to the Federal Government after hard negotiations, demanded that the cash be used for concrete developments, including infrastructure, such as roads, water, healthcare and education.
EFCC detectives tracking the $500million have discovered that it was diverted.
Of the $500million, about $250million was released to the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) during the tenure of Col. Sambo Dasuki without appropriation. The balance of $250million cannot be traced yet.
The Nation learnt that detectives discovered that the $250million was illegally withdrawn barely two months to the end of Jonathan’s administration.
Investigators are said to be working on clues that part of the cash was spent on “extraneous matters, including media services, opinion polls and personal matters”.
According to a fact-sheet on the investigation, the $250million was withdrawn between March 2, 2015 and April 21, 2015.
About $36,155,000 (N13,015,800billion) of the $250million was also withdrawn in cash “without any purpose” on March 2nd, 9th, 16th and 18th of 2015.
Detectives have retrieved documents relating to the alleged “re-looting” of the Abacha loot.
In the fact-sheet, the ONSA in a memo of January 12, 2015, asked the former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to transfer $300million .
The memo said: “Please refer to our meeting on recovered funds. You are pleased requested to remit the sum of $300m and £5.5m to the following account being ONSA share as agreed. Account name: CBN (NSA Foreign Operation; Account number: -100367-USD-CABANK30
Bank; Address: 28, Finsbury Circus, London. Please accept the assurances of my highest esteem.”
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, in a memo to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, requested for $300m from the Abacha loot.
Only $250million was released to the ex-NSA.
The January 20, 2015 memo said: “Attached, please find a request by the NSA for the transfer of $300m and British pounds (£5.5m) of the recovered Abacha funds to ONSA operations account. The NSA has explained that this is to enable purchase of ammunition, security and other intelligence equipment for the security agencies in order to enable them confront the ongoing Boko Haram threat.
“His request is sequel to the meeting you chaired with the committee on use of recovered funds where decision was made that recovered Abacha funds would be split 50-50 between urgent security needs to confront Boko Haram and development needs (including a portion for the Future Generations window of Sovereign Wealth Fund).
“This letter is to seek your approval to borrow these funds, for now, to disburse to the NSA. These funds form part of projected FG Independent Revenue to be appropriated.
In the meantime, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said he expects Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, to retain interest rate at 14 per cent at next week’s MPC meeting.
The MPC meeting has been scheduled to hold January 22 to 23, 2018. The committee will announce its decision on Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, Cash Reserve Ratio, Liquidity Ratio and Asymmetric Corridor. MPC has kept the key rate, MPR, at a record high 14 per cent since July 2016, trying to balance bringing down inflation and boosting an economy that exited recession during the second quarter of last year.
In an interview with Bloomberg in Abuja, Emefiele said: “I don’t think the interest rates will change; does economic data portend any significant changes in the policy rates? We don’t see that.
Normally, when you begin the year, what you find is that you want to hold the policy rate steady.” He stated that, since the peaking of interest rate at 18.7 per cent in January 2017, the interest rate had maintained a downward trend for eleven consecutive months to 15.4 per cent in December.
The central bank, which targets a range of six percent to nine percent, is making “very good progress” bringing the rate down.
Nation with additional report from Vanguard
