SERAP Makes FOI Request On Spending On Failed $460m Abuja CCTV Chinese Loan

Scio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has requested Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance to provide information on the contractors of the $460 million loan obtained from China to fund the failed Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) contract.

The Federal Government has continued to repay the loan despite the failure of the project.

The SERAP demand came in the form of a Freedom of Information, FOI request channeled to the minister.

SERAP urged Mrs Ahmed to “disclose specific details of local contractors, if any, that have received funds from the loan for the CCTV contract, reportedly awarded to China’s ZTE Corporation, as well as the implementation status of the project.”

SERAP also sought: “disclosure of details of repayment for other Chinese loans for allegedly failed projects between 1999–2015, the status of any such projects, and details of local and Chinese contractors involved in the projects. We urge you to clarify if the N1.5 billion paid in 2010 for another apparently failed contract to construct the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau is part of another Chinese loan.”

In the FoI request dated 25 October 2019 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: “We are concerned that Nigerians are being made to pay for the Chinese loans for apparently failed projects, and for which they have not benefited in any way, shape or form. Transparency in the spending of Chinese loans is good for everyone, as this would help to increase the effectiveness, legitimacy, and contribution of the loans to the development of public goods and services, and the general public interests.”

SERAP said it would take legal action “if the requested information is not provided to us within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter.”

SERAP said: “Servicing Chinese loans for failed projects is double jeopardy for Nigerians—they can neither see nor benefit from the projects; yet, they are made to pay both the loans and the accrued interests. The loans should never have been obtained in the first place, as successive governments should have drawn funds from the over $670 million (N241.2 billion) budgeted annually as security votes, but which remain synonymous with official corruption and unaccounted for.”

The organization expressed “concern that the $460 million loan got for the failed Abuja CCTV project and the N1.5 billion for the construction of CCB headquarters, which may be part of another Chinese loan, may have been mismanaged or stolen, and in any case, remain unaccounted for.”

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