The Bank of Industry (BoI), on Monday, said that the explained that funds belonging to the Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN) deposited with it had grown from N9billion to N13.2bn.
The bank, which was reacting to investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the allegation of the misapplication of the funds, said the issue had since been resolved.
The bank in a statement said parties to the transaction had addressed the concerns raised with the new terms reached on how to manage the funds.
According to the statement, BoI was appointed as the Fund Manager by the Federal Government in 2009 to manage funds contributed by cement manufacturers for the development of human capacity to drive growth in the Nigerian cement industry.
The statement added, “While the CTIN was yet to be established, the funds were released to stakeholders in the cement value-chain for on-lending, specifically for investment in risk assets in cement manufacturing value-chain sector. Between 2011 and 2015, the Federal Government transferred N9.6 billion to BoI based on earlier approved agreement.
“With the establishment of CITN, a request was made to the BoI for the release of the funds for which the bank defaulted but had since remedied the situation by applying eight per cent interest on the funds, thus accruing to N12.3 billion as at February 2016. The management of the bank had since met and agreed with the Chairman of the Board of CTIN and President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, on further utilization of the fund, based on agreement by the two institutions.
“Going forward, the parties have agreed to an interest rate of nine per cent on the fund as well as subsequent investment of the accrued N13.2 billion in the money market. The fund was not misapplied as stated in the petition to the EFCC. The EFCC is dealing with an issue that has already been addressed.”
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