Members of the Federal House of Representatives have alleged that the Federal Government (FG) lost over N5.7billion to Public-Private Projects, (PPP) and other property concession deals in the country in the last few years.
The legislators also revealed that the FG is losing over $90million to the Build-Operate-and-Transfer deal between aviation agencies and private investors.
The lawmakers made the separate disclosures, at an inaugural meeting of the “Ad hoc Committee to Investigate the Governing Lease of Federal Government-Owned Assets”, headed by Hon. Daniel Asuquo(PDP-Cross River).
The lawmakers alleged: “Categories of public infrastructure that benefit from PPP include power generation plants, power transmission distribution network, roads and bridges, sea ports, airports, railways, inland container depots, logistics hubs et cetera.
“Beautiful as these may sound, it has been discovered overtime that the realization of the FG ’s objective, may become a tall order if appropriate checks and balances are not put in place by way of oversight.
“A case in point is that of the Murtala Muhammed Domestic Airport Terminal 2 (MMA2), the domestic terminal of the international airport situated in Lagos and its ancillary facilities which were developed under a BOT agreement. Regrettably, the Federal Government is losing over $90.5 million annually due to the shoddy agreements between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and its concessionaire at both local and international wings of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) Lagos”.
The reps members also alleged the situation was the same in the maritime sector. They said: “A similar situation obtains in the maritime sector where the Nigerian Government has concessioned 26 ports in Nigeria to private companies. The tenures of the NPA concession agreements range from 15 to 25 years and the estimated revenue to government from the concessions is estimated at over $6.54 Billion over the period.
“However, JV companies have allegedly only realized an estimated sum of $3 Billion since 2005 out of the total sum.
“The story and picture of the scenario is the same in almost all FG agencies where concession agreements were entered into with private companies. On the average, the Nigerian economy has lost over $5.7Billion from unfavourable and non-transparent Federal Government concession and lease agreements since its inception.”
