TheCable

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the World Bank to release documents showing how funds released to Nigeria for electricity projects were spent between 1999 and 2020.

The World Bank had recently approved $500 million to support Nigeria in improving operations of electricity distribution companies (DisCos).

In a statement on Sunday, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP deputy director, urged David Malpass, World Bank president, to release records and documents relating to spending on all approved funds to improve access to electricity in Nigeria between 1999 and 2020.

Oluwadare asked the bank to “explain the rationale for the approval of $500m to implement electricity projects in the country, despite reports of widespread and systemic corruption in the sector”.

“This application is brought pursuant to the World Bank’s Access to Information Policy, which aims to maximize access to information and promote the public good,” the statement read.

“There is public interest in Nigerians knowing about the Bank’s supervisory role and specifically its involvement in the implementation of electricity projects, which it has so far funded.

“The $500m is part of the over one billion dollars available to Nigeria under the project titled: Nigeria distribution sector recovery program (DISREP).

“We would be grateful for details of any transparency and accountability mechanisms under the agreement for the release of funds, including whether there is any provision that would allow Nigerians and civil society to monitor the spending of the money by the government, its agencies, and electricity distribution companies.”

SERAP said if the bank fails to release the information sought, it would file an appeal to the secretariat of the bank’s access to information committee or “may also consider other legal options”.

The letter, which copied Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank country director for Nigeria, reads in part: “SERAP believes that releasing the information and documents would enable Nigerians and civil society to meaningfully engage in the implementation of electricity projects funded by the Bank, contribute to the greater public good, and enhance the Bank’s oft-stated commitment to transparency and accountability.

“The World Bank has been and continues to be involved in overseeing the transfer, disbursement, spending of funds on electricity projects in Nigeria. The Bank also reportedly approved a $750 million loan for Nigeria’s electricity sector in June 2020 to cut tariff shortfalls, protect the poor from price adjustments, and increase power supply to the grid. As such, the World Bank is not a neutral party in this matter.

“SERAP is seriously concerned that the funds approved by the Bank are vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement. The World Bank has a responsibility to ensure that the Nigerian authorities and their agencies are transparent and accountable to Nigerians in how they spend the approved funds for electricity projects in the country, and to reduce vulnerability to corruption and mismanagement.

“The information is also being sought to improve the ongoing fight against corruption in the country and the provision of regular and uninterrupted electricity supply to Nigerians as a fundamental human right.”

SERAP said about N11 trillion electricity fund was squandered by successive administrations in Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999.

It added that the World Bank’s funding of the electricity sector has not resulted in corresponding access of Nigerians to regular and uninterrupted electricity supply.