Abuja, May 3, 2023 – The Senate has approved a request by President Buhari to restructure the N22.7 trillion loans the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) extended to the federal government by Ways and Means.
The request was sent to the Senate in December 2022.
The Senate Leader, Ibrahim Gobir, on Wednesday led the Senate in the debate for the approval of the request, saying part of the loans were given to the states as loans.
Gobir said that the Special Committee set up by the Senate to scrutinize the fiscal document, put up the report after ‘critical analysis and review of submissions made by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning; and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Gobir said the panel discovered that the Ways and Means balance was initially “N19,326,745,239,660.20 as of 30th June 2022”, but later grew to “N22,719,704,774,306.90 as of 19th December 2022” as a result of financial obligations to ongoing capital projects and additional expenditures which included domestic debt service gaps and interest rate.
He said the Senate on Wednesday, 28th December 2022, approved the sum of N819, 536,937,813 from the one trillion-naira additional request made by the president, leaving an outstanding balance of N180, 463,062,187 being the accrued interest on the sum. (GBN)
