The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has disclosed his displeasure towards some loans and projects approved and sanctioned by the immediate past executives of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB). The Minister made this assertion during an interactive session at the event hosted by the Petroleum Club in Lagos Nigeria.

Heineken Lopkobiri noted that the Federal Government is currently reviewing the loans and projects estimated at $500m executed by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, which includes the $35m  Brass modular refinery and $20m fertiliser factory in Bayelsa State. He further expresses his dissatisfaction why some of these projects exclusive of Waltersmith Refinery have not seen the light of the day as there is nothing on sites to show their execution.

 “It is brilliant for the NCDMB to partner with potential investors to build modular refineries, but there are some cases. I give an example: In Bayelsa, there was the Atlantic Refinery that was supposed to be in Brass, my predecessor’s hometown. $35m was paid out by NCDMB, not even one block is there. Normally if the NCDMB is to make an investment, there is a disbursement threshold, but this $35m was released at once. This is the same town that Simbi, the former NCDMB Executive Secretary also came from. When you go there you see an open field, not even one block.

“There is also the Brass Fertiliser, NCDMB also released $20m, empty field. So, NCDMB has made some very bad investments. In this case, NCDMB has disbursed about $19Om in different equity investments, and none of them, apart from the Waltersmith modular refinery, can you say is worth a good investment. But the NCDMB under my leadership will not do a thing like that.”

 “Even when there are documents showing, ‘do not do this refinery of $35m’, it was done against the advice. The money was not paid in installments, it was paid at once. The NCDMB under my leadership is reviewing the entirety of those investments. $190m is almost N200bn, some states don’t have that kind of budget,” he added.

He further blamed Bank of Industry for the unprofessional roles they played in  managing $350m that was taken to the Bank by the board to give loans to investors, while alleging that the fund was mismanaged.

“But what was in addition to the money that was taken to the BOI. The BOI had about $350m. Also, of  those loans that were given, 90 per cent of them were non-performing. So, on the whole, you are talking of over half a billion dollars ($500m) wasted. We can’t follow the same trajectory, it doesn’t make any sense. We must do things differently. We are now reviewing the entire loans that were given out.

“Some people applied for a $10,000 loan, you gave them $500,000.  On my salary as a minister, I earn less than N1m in a month; even if I am a minister for four years, I won’t even get up to N50m. So, imagine for somebody to make just one bad investment and then wipe away $35m. In the same location we have the Brass refinery, we another $20m; we have $50m of investment. The same man-$35m, $20m, and there is another $50m – one man. He should be in jail. If it’s China, they will execute them, but Nigeria is a democratic nation.”

But the immediate past Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Simbi Wabote has vehemently disagreed with the Minister of State for Petroleum on the above allegations, stating that due processes were duly followed in awarding and approving the projects and loans and that the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund was the best loan scheme in Nigeria as of today with a 96 per cent payback rate.

 “You cannot drag a man to want to destroy him without having facts and no evidence to back it up. NCDMB does not interfere in the process you go through to obtain the loan. You go through the BOI because it takes the entire credit risk, and for any loan you take, you have to present a bank guarantee, and if you are not able to perform, BOI calls back the loan. So, the $300m that is given to BOI is the best loan scheme that this country has ever known,” Wabote said.

 “You can also reach out to Waltersmith and ask them about the state of the equity investment the NCDMB made in their modular refinery. If it was all a bad investment, that would not bring dividends. As we speak, Waltersmith perhaps, would declare a profit-after-tax of maybe about N28bn or N20bn. NCDMB did not invest in it (Brass Fertiliser Company) alone. NNPC was part of that investment,” Wabote explained.

NedoGas has on Monday paid a dividend of $1m to NCDMB on one of the investments done with the company.