The Senate ad-hoc committee probing the disbursement of N500bn SME loan by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) yesterday resolved to summon the finance minister, Zainab Ahmed; the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele and others for explanations on distribution criteria.
The Senate had, last week, constituted a seven-man panel to investigate allegations of uneven disbursement of the N500 billion naira loan to beneficiaries in the six geo-political zones by the DBN in 2021.
It set up the panel following a motion by Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, who noted that only 11 per cent of the loan went to the 19 northern states totaling N53bn while Lagos alone got 47 percent, which amounts to N227bn.
The ad-hoc committee, chaired by Senator Sani Musa, yesterday said other officials to face the panel are chief executives of DBN, the Bank of Industry, the Bank of Agriculture and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria.
