In tbe past six-months, the Federal Government received an additional ₦3.8 trillion in Ways and Means Borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
This, according to report, is the provisional data published in the latest Statistics bulletin for the last quarter of 2023, which the apex bank released.
According to the CBN’s provision statistics, the entire sum increased from ₦4.4 trillion at the end of June 2023, bringing the government’s cumulative Ways and Means balances to ₦8.2 trillion as of December 2023.
The amount contradicts Minister of Finance Wale Edun’s allegation that Tinubu’s government has yet to borrow from the CBN.
Edun remarked this when speaking with journalists at the IMF and World Bank’s recent Spring Meetings in Washington, DC.
Meanwhile, the total Ways and Means balance as of May 2023, when the Tinubu administration entered office, was ₦26.95 trillion.
However, the balances were securitized as part of the federal government’s domestic debt portfolio.
Further examination revealed that it was N4.36 trillion at the end of June 2023, implying that the previous month’s balances may have been transferred to the Debt Management Office, which is in charge of the country’s debt record.
However, starting in July 2023, the balances climbed monthly to ₦4.5 trillion in July and ₦5.1 trillion in August, crossing the ₦5.1 trillion threshold for the first time.
By September, the amount had risen to ₦6.4 trillion, with the greatest monthly incremental borrowing of almost ₦1.3 trillion.
It grew to ₦7.2 trillion in October before slightly climbing to ₦7.6 trillion in November.
At the conclusion of the year, in December, the total reached ₦8.21 trillion, indicating that Ways and Means climbed by 88 percent in six months.
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