The Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), a corporation vested with the responsibility of managing all federal government investments, interests, estates, easements and rights has disclosed that many of the federal government’s assets owned are unknown, while others are “dead and gone.”
The board chairman, Shamsudeen Usman, made this known after the inauguration of the board, governing council, and executive management team by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
According to Usman, there is uncertainty about the actual assets owned by the federal government with some unknown, while the value of the known ones was estimated at N18-19 trillion.
“There is nobody in government today that can tell you with certainty, [that] this is 100 percent the assets owned by the government. Unfortunately, we are in that situation, (but) some work has started. That’s why we arrived at this estimated N18- N19 trillion. But there are some that are not even known. There’s a lot of uncertainty. Where are they? Where are they all over the country? What’s the value? And how can we turn them around?” he said.
“I’ve seen the list. For example, some of the quoted companies in which the government owns shares, are dead already, dead and gone. But it is in the register that the government is still owning (sic) some of those shares, but the companies are no more.
“You know, I think in terms of the major assets today, the petroleum assets, for example, are huge. NNPC itself is partly owned by MOFI, the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, NEXIM, our shareholding in the Islamic Bank, and the African Development Bank, these are all assets we own. And then of course, there are some that you know, they are more or less either dead or not yielding anything.
“Some of them, we took loans to set them up. They are supposed to be commercial ventures that are supposed to actually generate the repayment of those loans. Now, in some cases, the government has paid the loans. And those institutions are still being baby nursed by the government.
“I don’t want to give any specific example. I don’t want to embarrass some of the MDs of those companies. So, we have to work on those to say, look, how do we restructure you in such a way that you begin to yield revenue to the government? And where some of the loans are outstanding, can we generate some of the repayment of the loans from the activities of those corporations?” he said.
The former finance minister, however, said MOFI will carry out a detailed inventory to produce a credible national register of the assets.
The register, Usman said, would help to eliminate uncertainties regarding assets owned by the government.
He said MOFI will work with all other related government agencies to ensure there is no conflict in the discharge of their respective duties.
