From Femi Mustspha, in Kaduna
A Corruption watch group, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, (ANEEJ) has stressed the need for the House of Representatives Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management, to oversight the utilization of the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) that IMF allocated to member countries in August 2021.
This was contained in a statement made available to the media in Kaduna on 17th May, 2024.
The statement said that the Anti Corruption Group expressed this during an engagement with the Senior Legislative Aide to the House Committee Chairman on Aids, Loans and Debt Management, Hon. Nalaraba Abubakar Hassan Nonye Mgbechi.
Briefing the Senior Legislative Aide on the purpose of the meeting, ANEEJ Programme Officer, Paul Odokara explained that there was need for the House Committee to carry out oversight on the utilization of the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) that IMF allocated to member countries in August 2021.
He informed the Aide that ANEEJ with support from AFRODAD and OSF commissioned two researches on the utilization of the SDRs in two West African countries namely Nigeria and Ghana.
“Following the research reports, ANEEJ has been engaging stakeholders to ask questions on how the SDR was spent especially since the CBN being the custodian of the facility has not told Nigerians how the SDR was spent.
“He also told the Senior Aide that the Parliament in particular has a special role in supporting the advocacy to reallocate the SDRs from rich countries to poor countries to support sustainable development projects in social sectors of the economy. “
Also speaking, the Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor who led the delegation informed the Aide that his team is seeking a partnership to work with the Committee as this would sensitize and raise awareness on SDRs as some of the Parliamentarians have not understood what SDR was all about.
“He stated that raising questions on how the SDR was used on the floor of the House would raise the profile of the Committee Chairman and eventually lead to public awareness and consciousness.
“He also added that the committee has the power to summon relevant government agencies like the CBN and Finance Ministry to give an account of how the SDR was spent. “
Responding, Ms. Nonye acknowledged the challenges involved in getting the Committee Chairman to respond to the request for an advocacy visit due to tight schedules but promised to highlight the importance of the visit to the Committee Chairman. On the partnership between ANEEJ and the Committee, she suggested that the issue of the SDR could come in the form of a motion on the floor of the house whereby a public hearing would be conducted. The engagement was held as part of activities in the implementation of AFRODAD and OSF engagement activities.
It would be recalled that the IMF allocated 456.5 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to its 190 members.
“The allocation was equal to $650. billion at the U.S. dollar value of the SDR at the end of August 2021.
“On August 23, 2021, Nigeria received $3.3 billSDR funds direct allocation from IMF for special intervention initiatives COVID-19 pandemic and other special programs which the citizens believe would boost Nigeria’s reserves by about 10 percent, and this will give the Central Bank of Nigeria more buffers to support the naira.
“The CBN will be able to clear the foreign exchange (FX) backlog once this fund is received but this has not changed the narrative for the Implementation process,”
