Edun: FG investigating N22.7trn Ways and Means, report to be released soon

Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, says President Bola Tinubu’s administration is auditing the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means loans.

Edun disclosed this on Tuesday at the public wealth management conference in Abuja.

The event was organised by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) to seek ways of managing the nation’s assets and resources for the overall wellbeing of the people.

Ways and Means is a loan facility through which the CBN provides short-term financing to cover the government’s budget shortfalls.

On May 23, 2023, the senate approved the sum of N22.7 trillion Ways and Means loan, thereby securitising the debt following a request by former President Muhammadu Buhari on December 28, 2022, asking the lawmakers to do so.

Addressing the senate, Buhari had said it would cost the federal government about N1.8 trillion in interest, if the national assembly failed to approve the N22.7 trillion in extra-budgetary spending.

One year later, Godwin Emefiele, the embattled ex-governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was linked to a “fraud” case involving the apex bank’s loan on December 22, 2023.

A report by a panel investigating CBN and related entities — led by Jim Obazee, a special investigator — said Emefiele and Zainab Ahmed, former finance minister, had jointly signed a statement advising Buhari to restructure the Ways and Means of N23.71 trillion despite presenting “a different figure to the National Assembly on the same date”.

Speaking at the event, the finance minister said the details of the investigation on the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means advances would be released soon.

He also said the Tinubu administration inherited the rising prices of food and general commodities from the previous administration but is doing what it can to bring them down, as well as the soaring inflation rate in the country.

Edun added that the federal government is aware of the plight of Nigerians as measures have been put in place to alleviate their sufferings.

According to Edun, the interventions include the release of 42,000 metric tons of grains and another 60,000 metric tons expected to be released soon.

On February 9, 2024, while addressing the senate committee on banking, insurance and other finance institutions on inflation, Olayemi Cardoso, governor of CBN, says the financial institution will halt its Ways and Means advances to the federal government.