CBN Removes Report On Fresh ₦3.8 Trillion Loan From Tinubu Govt

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has removed the data which provided a fresh loan of N3.8 trillion in Ways and Means to the federal government from its website.

Naija News earlier reported that the Tinubu government took the loan during the second half of 2023

This is according to provisional data published in the latest statistics bulletin for the fourth quarter of the year recently released by the apex bank.

This is despite the claim by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, that the Tinubu government had not borrowed money from the CBN.

The CBN’s provisional data also showed that the total figure rose from N4.4 trillion at the end of June 2023, meaning that the cumulative Ways and Means balances due by the government grew to N8.2 trillion as of December 2023.

Naija News understands that total Ways and Means balances as of May 2023 when the Tinubu administration took over N26.95 trillion.

However, the balances were securitised and included as part of the federal government’s domestic debt profile.

A breakdown of the data shows that the balance at the end of June 2023 was N4.36 trillion, indicating that the prior month’s balances may have been moved to the Debt Management Office (DMO).

From July 2023, the balances increased every month, first to N4.5 trillion in July, then N5.1 trillion in August, crossing the N5.1 trillion mark for the first time.

By September, the total was N6.4 trillion, representing the single largest additional borrowing for a month with about N1.3 trillion. It then climbed to N7.2 trillion in October before rising marginally to N7.6 trillion in November.

At the end of the year, in December, the total hit N8.21 trillion, suggesting that Ways and Means increased by 88 per cent in six months.

However, according to Leadership, the data which was uploaded on the CBN website on April 19, 2024, has been taken down as efforts to download the report returned with a message that the report can not be found.