Dogara queries CBN over non-disclosure of interests on foreign reserves

By Aunde T. Emmanuel

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has queried the non-disclosure of interest accruing to Nigeria’s foreign reserves accounts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Speaking when a delegation from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) visited him in Abuja on Thursday, the Speaker said agencies like the FRC should be in custody of such figures for dissemination to the public when necessary. The House had on December 15, 2015, passed a resolution, calling on the Central Bank to declare interests accruable to the nation’s foreign reserves accounts. 

“We earn interest on foreign reserves, like Botswana. Because they don’t have oil, it is the second highest revenue after resources earned from natural resources. “You will see it as a budget item; interest earned from foreign reserves. In Nigeria, we have been asking the question, are we earning or are we just running charity with it or just leave people to manage it? “Are we capitalising the interest and what is the interest? Nobody has ever told us,’’ Dogara said. 

“The CBN is the custodian of the foreign reserves we have but the point is that if they are not forthcoming with regards to what has been happening with the interest earned on foreign reserves, there should be an agency of government that we can run to,’’ the speaker stated. He also sought to know why the ceiling on borrowing as stated in the FRC Act is not adhered to, saying that “do we continue borrowing until we have borrowed billions? “The Fiscal Responsibility Act speaks to those things so why is it that it is not being done.” 

He noted that there was the urgent need for the government to properly fund the commission in order to deliver on its mandate and strengthen its powers. According to him, the commission has the capacity to reduce corruption by over 80 percent. Dogara said that the approach adopted by the government to fight corruption through the EFCC to punish corruption offenders after the crime has been committed should be redirected to checking the root of the problem. 

“The entire motive for, or the reason for the establishment of this agency was for us to have an agency that will ensure that we have efficient allocation of resources in our country. “Once resources in a country are not efficiently allocated, or in an efficient manner, there is bound to be dislocation in the economy of that country. “If we hope to get the best from agencies such as this, it means that we have to resolve across board to put some resources at the disposal of the agency. 

“Otherwise, if we think that we cannot fund the agency but the agency will live up to expectations, I think we are only deceiving ourselves. From the way we are fighting corruption, it is like emphasis is built on EFCC. “But the problem with that approach that you are dealing with symptoms of corruption and corruption is like a tree. “Once you continue to deal with the leaves and the fruits, and the root is still there, you cannot totally eliminate corruption. 

“These are preventive agencies and we ought to invest more in agencies such as the Fiscal Responsibility Agency because we have to make it difficult for the corruption itself to take place and once we do that, we will be applying the remedy at the root of corruption. “There is no limit to the kind of attention we can pay to agencies like this because this is the right way to combat corruption itself to ensure that resources are efficiently allocated and that we have fiscal discipline. “Once we have done that, we would have reduced incidents of corruption by perhaps, over 80 percent,’’ Dogara said. 

Earlier, the Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) Mr Victor Muruako, urged the Speaker to facilitate the speedy amendment of the Act establishing it. He said there was need to empower the commission to retain a percentage of the operating surplus it collects from ministries, departments and agencies of government on behalf of the federal government.