CENTRAL Bank (CBN) governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, yesterday told investigators of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that the withdrawal of the $462 million from the foreign reserves and subsequent payment of same to the African Financial Corporation (AFC) was with full backing of the board of the apex bank.

He also told the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency that the legal process was followed in the deal.

Prof. Soludo, accompanied by a retinue of aides, arrived the ICPC headquarters at 10:00 am and was directed to the office of the Director of Operations, Mr. Tunde Ogunshokun.

Vanguard gathered that he told his interrogators the money was an investment from which Nigeria stands to benefit immensely.

He is expected back at the ICPC next week to furnish the probe panel with documents to back his claims.

The committee comprises Alhaji Mohammed Garba, representing the Accountant-General's Office; Mr. Pius Oteh, representing the Federal Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General's Office; Dr. B. B. A. Verr representing the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government, and Mr. Emmanuel Oshibote.

Among the terms of reference of the committee which was inaugurated on April 16, 2008 by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, is ascertaining and obtaining necessary evidence of remittance of the equity contribution by the CBN to the receiving bank for the AFC initiative.

It is also to ascertain the authorisation for the remittance and determine the signatories to the account in the receiving institution.

And testifying before the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, the CBN governor said: "The process for setting up AFC started in January 2006 and the final agreement was signed about 17 months later. We followed all the legal processes.

The CBN Act allows the bank to go into any investment for the economic development of the country, if approved by the Federal Government. It is like every other investment that the bank has in Nigerian Deposits Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other investments. The approval granted by the former president was in line with the CBN Act.

"There is no relationship between the AFC investment and the money in the Bank of England. The total money in that account as at last July was not more than £16 million while the AFC investment is about $462 million.

The money in the Bank of England belongs to the Central Bank but is called Federal Government account because the practice is that account is opened in the name of sovereignty. We did not move the money from Bank of England. Federal Government had about N237 billion in stock and from there we invested in AFC.

We came from naira account and converted the money to dollars. The money invested in AFC is safe, secure and yielding interest."

Soludo said the investment was beginning to yield the expected results and with time, CBN would restrict its share to about 10 percent.

He added that besides some African countries that had subscribed to the concept, some Canadians had offered to invest about $100 million but the management of the corporation had asked them to wait because of the ongoing valuation of the investment, emphasizing that the investment was critical to the achievement of the 2020 goal.

The governor painted a rosy picture of the journey so far, saying AFC was already carrying out some projects in the country which would generate revenue to the corporation.

He mentioned some of the projects in the country to include the $4 billion power project to add 3,600 mega watts of electricity to the national grid; construction of Ring Roads in Port Harcourt to the tune of about N700 million; construction of fourth Mainland Bridge in Lagos;and coal fired plant in Kogi State.

Soludo added that some African countries had offered the corporation mining licences while some Nigerian banks had invested in the venture but only those investors with a minimum of $50 million are allowed to be on board of the company which he chairs.

He recalled before the committee that AFC was approved by the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, following a proposal he submitted to him and the signing of the agreement by the Attorney-General of the Federation, putting official seal on the investment.

Earlier, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency, Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, had told the CBN officials led by the governor that the interaction was meant to exchange information on the controversy over the establishment of AFC.