LEADERSHIP
The Senate yesterday approved the request of President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the N22.7 trillion loans the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) extended to the federal government under its Ways and Means provision.
The Ways and Means provision allows the government to borrow from the apex bank if it needs short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government expected cash receipts of fiscal deficits.
Since the government started experiencing a significant shortfall in revenue, it has relied heavily on the central bank to finance its expenditure programmes via Ways and Means whose balance as of December 19, 2022 stood at N22.7 trillion.
The federal government had said it will repay the loan with securities such as treasury bills and bonds issuance.
President Buhari had last year asked the Senate to approve his proposal to securitise the loan but the Red Chamber rejected the request, citing lack of details…
