Reps to probe N1.24tn Sukuk funds

The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved to probe Sukuk backed road projects valued at about N1.24tn raised In the past seven years (2017- 2024).

The resolution of the House followed the adoption in plenary of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Nasarawa lawmaker, Mr Jonathan Gbefwi.

Recall that the Federal Government has since 2017, through the Debt Management Office, raised over N1.1tn through six Sovereign Sukuk issuances to finance 124 federal road projects spanning 5,820km across the nation’s six geopolitical zones.

Recent data by the Security and Exchange Commission as of December 2024 put this amount at approximately $657.6m, at current exchange rates.

A breakdown of the Sukuk initiative imclude N100bn (2017), N100bn (2018), N162.56bn (2020), N250bn (2021), N130bn (2022), and N350bn (2023), with indications from posts on various reports suggesting an additional N150bn was issued in October 2023, pushing the cumulative total to approximately N1.24tn by the end of 2024, pending the official confirmation by the Debt Management Office for late 2024 issuances.

Rallying support for the motion, Gbefwi noted that that despite the significant investment, “Nigeria’s road infrastructure remains in a deplorable state, with over 70 per cent of the country’s 200,000km road network still unpaved, as noted by S&P Global Ratings in January 2024.”

According to him, “The House is worried that without robust accountability mechanisms, the Sukuk programme risks becoming a conduit for mismanagement or corruption.”

When put into voice vote by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the plenary, the lawmakers supported the motion overwhelmingly.

The House thereafter mandated its Committee on Works to “Conduct a forensic probe into the allocation, expenditure, and outcomes of the N1.24tn Sukuk funds raised from 2017 to 2024, identifying instances of diversion, inflation, or contractor noncompliance.”

The House also mandated the Ministry of Works to provide the Committee on Works with detailed real-time records of all Sukuk-funded projects, “Including financial disbursements, project statuses, and contractor performance as at date and to be updated every quarter.”

It also charged the Committee on Works to submit a comprehensive report to the House within six weeks, “Detailing findings, issues, and proposed remedial measures to the issues surrounding the Sukuk financing in Nigeria.”

The House further mandated its Clerk  to publish the resolution in the Journal of the National Assembly and the Gazette of the Federal Government of Nigeria in compliance with Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.