NIRSAL MD, Aliyu Abdulhameed is on the hot seat
Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), is presently at the centre of an alleged fraud of about N5billion involving its Managing Director, Aliyu Abdulhameed and some of its top management staff.
The fraud which is being investigated by government security agencies is a wheat project which was expected to be established in Jigawa State.
The project was single-handedly being handled by one of the trusted aides to the MD. However, it was gathered that attempts are being made desperately by the nation’s investigation hierarchy to abandon the investigation as a result of pressure from the Managing Director and his men, using very powerful people in government.
Our investigations revealed that not long after N5bilion was earmarked for the Jigawa Wheat Project which was to cover a large-scale farm and processing machines the MD and his men allegedly diverted the money using cronies and questionable accounts to siphon the fund in one of the commercial banks. N1 billion of the diverted amount was allegedly traced to the personal account of the head of finance. The commercial bank in question, quite uncomfortable with the manner the 75 per cent risk deposit with it was being misappropriated by the agency, had to alert police of the activities of the MD and his men.
Although the N5billion was earmarked for the project, more than one year after, there has been no single land cultivated for farming and there has been no equipment to support such an amount which has virtually been misappropriated. NIRSAL, according to our findings gave its credit risk guarantee of 75 per cent on the loan obtained from a commercial bank while also collateralizing the loan with its deposits in the bank for a third party, transaction that is totally at variance with best practices.
The MD allegedly used phony companies, most of which were registered barely three months before carrying out such colossal tasks.
Those being investigated, apart from the MD are Idris Aweda (Head of Finance), Tosin Ariyo (Technical Assistant to MD on Projects), Michael Adeoye, (Head of Credit Risk). These heads of department were detained where they made useful statements to the Police.
NIRSAL, an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bankers Committee (BC) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, incorporated as a public limited liability company (PLC) and licensed as a non-bank financial institution (NBFI), is tasked with the primary mandate of facilitating the flow of credit to agribusiness value chain players and collaborating with stakeholders to fix broken agricultural value chains in Nigeria.
Apart from these, as against the mandate of NIRSAL, the managing director, Mr. Abdulhammed is alleged to have appointed his younger brother, Babangida Abdulhammed as his technical assistant, handling all procurement-related matters, effectively usurping the functions of the procurement department. Sources alleged that Babangida singlehandedly decides how contracts are awarded at NIRSAL and who gets them. Also, the son of the managing director, Imran Abdulhammed, is the sole supplier of office equipment including desktop computers and laptops among others.
Investigations also revealed that the managing director circumvents the usual routes in procurement. A staff of the apex bank, who is one of his relatives, has been fingered in some wild infractions including backdating of documentations for several monies that had been spent to secure board approvals.
It was further learnt that Mr. Abdulhammed singlehandedly appoints contractors who work with the company. Nextzone, Blue Accord, Global Knowledge consulting are some of the firms allegedly linked to him by sources.
Besides the fact that it makes nonsense of the president’s anti-corruption crusade, it further exposes the current government’s inability to adequately monitor public officers. For instance, contrary to government’s directive placing ban on foreign trainings, NIRSAL had sent some staff on trainings abroad, including a particular one in South Africa, described as jamboree by a member of staff who was part of the training.
When contacted on this and other allegations, the MD refused to response to our enquiries sent to him. Apex News Exclusive sent SMS to the MD’s phone line on June 5 and 15, 2020 on the need to get his side without response.
