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A group, Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), a coalition from 70 community and civil society organizations (CSO), has requested the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and independent corruption practices and other related violation commissions (ICPC) to investigate the loan transfer of $ 3.4 billion Nigeria.
The call for an investigation was carried out in a statement signed by Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer and the Chairperson of ASCAB, on Sunday.
Ripples Nigeria reported that on May 8, 2025, International Monetary Funds (IMF) said Nigeria would pay $ 30 million per year as an accusation of special drawing rights (SDR) for loans obtained by countries obtained to reduce the impact of Covid-19 and a sharp decline in oil prices in 2020.
Reacting, the group said the previous investigation accused the funds of being transferred.
“Considering the above, the alliance of Covid-19 which is still alive and so on (ASCAB) hereby calls for the Commission on Economic and Financial Crimes and Independent Corruption Practices and other related violation commissions to investigate the $ 3.4 billion loan criminal transfer obtained by Nigeria to fight Pandemic Covid-19,” the statement said.
“We also ask the IMF Council to investigate the deliberate rejection of its management to ensure that emergency funds are used for intended purposes.”
The group also asked the IMF to “suspend the scheduled cost collection, including net costs, basic interest and administrative costs, amounting to SDR 125.99 million (N275.28 billion) while waiting for conclusions from the investigation”.
The statement noted that the 2020 audit report by the Federation-General Auditor’s Office, which was released in January 2024, marked several deviations in handling these funds.
Quoting the audit report, Ascab said that on April 30, 2020, the report noted that “$ 2.4 billion loans were transferred to the CBN account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, while the remaining balances entered into the CBN account at the Bank of China, Shanghai”.
“Further reports state that on June 1, $ 2.4 billion has been transferred to banks for international settlements (BIS) for short -term investment. Funds in China are also transferred to Chinese Industrial and Commercial Banks (ICBC),” the group said.
“This transaction, according to the audit, is not supported by documentation or approval from the Federal Government or the CBN Investment Committee and that the funds are then reclassified as part of the CBN external reserves rather than ownership of the federal government.
“This reclassification, the report records, allows interest to be obtained from funds, contrary to the objectives of the emergency expenditure they have approved.”
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In addition, the report noted that on August 7, 2020, the Ministry of Finance “requested a monetization of $ 700 million to support the Federal 2020” budget.
One week later, Ascab said, “CBN approved the N265.65 billion debit, implementing the N379.5/$ exchange rate, higher than the official N360.5/$ tariff at that time”.
“The funds are credited to three separate accounts: N252 billion to the COVID-19 Public Sector Account, N13.3 billion to the Forex and N350 Million Equalization Accounts to the Exchange Commission account,” the group said.
“The audit noted that the 2% commission was deducted from the amount that was monetized, although the funds were categorized as federal government property. At the end of 2020, an unpleasted balance of $ 2.7 billion-equivalent to around N1.02 trillion-talled to, according to the auditor-general report.
“The report recommends that the CBN Governor must explain the movement and classification of funds without proper authorization.”
The report, said Ascab, also requested a bank report to confirm the uncomfortable balance and demanded recovery of N13.3 billion and N350 million into a federal government account.
“Further calls for sending money from all interests obtained from investment and warns that sanctions based on relevant financial regulations will be applied if there is no accountability,” the group said.
Ascab criticized the National Assembly for ignoring the Auditor-Genal 2020 report.
Although submitted as needed, the group said that both the Senate and the House of Representatives did not review the report through their public account committee.
According to the Coalition, the laundry hid the abuse of $ 3.4 billion from the IMF and Trillions of Naira marked in the report.
The group added that violating part 85 (5) the constitution, which mandated legislative supervision of public accounts.
By: Babajide Okeowo
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