FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO INVESTIGATE BUHARI’S N22.7 TRILLION WAYS AND MEANS LOAN

The Federal Government has taken steps to conduct an audit of the N22.7 trillion ways and means loan sanctioned during the previous administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari. Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, announced this during the Public Wealth Management Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, assuring that the details would be disclosed shortly.

Additionally, the Senate has revealed plans to launch an inquiry into the N30 trillion ways and means advances provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the federal government during Buhari’s tenure. Senate President Godswill Akpabio made this announcement following the presentation and adoption of a report by the Joint Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Finance, National Planning, Agriculture, and Appropriation during a plenary session.

The ways and means constitute a loan facility extended by the CBN to the federal government to address budget shortfalls. This loan has sparked controversy, with concerns raised by experts about the CBN surpassing its lending limit to the federal government, violating existing laws.

The Finance Minister explained, “We have to stem liquidity. The Central Bank has led the way in pointing out that the ways and means have to be tailed down and eliminated, and that is what we agree with. We are moving in that direction, there was an inherited amount of N22.7 trillion in backlogs. We are auditing it, similar to when I am ready to pay a loan from a bank and I request an audit before determining the agreed sum to pay.”

Akpabio mentioned that an ad hoc committee will be formed on Wednesday to investigate how the loan was utilized. The committee will scrutinize the details of the ways and means, including their disbursement and usage, especially in intervention programs such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme, excess funding in the power sector, and funds allocated to manufacturers, banks, and airlines, which have contributed to the country’s current debt profile. Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, chairman of the joint committee, attributed the current social and economic crises to the borrowing practices of the previous administration and urged the federal government to settle the N30 trillion debt to reduce money supply.

Abdullateef Salau & Philip Shimnom Clement From the News Source: DailyTrust