The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has attributed the frequent collapse of the national grid to the activities of corrupt contractors.

The EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, made this known while receiving members of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes during an oversight visit to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

Olukoyede, who expressed concern that financial crimes and corruption undermined the nation’s development, said the dubious practice was a major cause of frequent equipment failures, outages, and grid collapses.

According to him, one of the problems of this country in the last 15 years to 20 years is that budget performance is always below 20 per cent.

The EFCC boss stated that some of the electricity companies bought substandard goods to run the electricity, saying this has been responsible for the frequent collapse of the national grid.

Olukoyede also lamented poor implementation and execution of capital projects in the country, saying Nigeria cannot achieve infrastructural or any form of growth under such conditions.

Olukoyede said: “Investigations carried out by the EFCC showed that contractors in the power sector, who were awarded projects to supply electrical equipment, often opted for substandard materials.

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“As I am talking to you now, we are grappling with electricity. If you see some of the investigations we are carrying out within the power sector, you will shed tears.”

He noted that the EFCC discovered that in the last 20 years, capital project implementation and execution in the country were not up to 20 per cent.

The EFCC chairman added: “If we do not do that, how do you want to have infrastructural development? How do you want to grow as a nation?

“Our mandate this year is to work with the National Assembly to see if we can meet up to 50 per cent of the execution of our capital project for the year.

“If we do 50 per cent, we will be fine as a nation. Lack of implementation of this capital budget is one of our major problems in Nigeria.”

Olukoyede called for collective efforts and partnership with all stakeholders to win the battle against corruption in the country.

He emphasised the need for effective collaboration between the lawmakers and the EFCC in achieving the commission’s mandate of fighting corruption.

Speaking, the chairman of the committee, Ginger Onwusibe, lauded the achievement of the EFCC.

Onwusibe said the committee was at the EFCC office as part of its oversight functions, aimed at monitoring the performance of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

He also expressed the committee’s readiness to assist the EFCC through legislation and budget allocations.

The Star