President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to restructure the N22.7 trillion loan borrowed by the federal government from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under its Ways and Means provision has been approved by the House of Representatives.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that this decision comes after the Senate had earlier granted approval.
Under the Ways and Means provision, the government can borrow from the apex bank in cases of short-term or emergency finance needs to fund delayed government expected cash receipts of fiscal deficits.
The federal government had assured that it would repay the loan, which amounted to N22.7 trillion as at December 2022, by using securities such as treasury bills and bonds issuance.
Presenting the report at the Committee of the Whole on Thursday, the relevant committees said: “That the House do consider the Report of the Committees on Finance, Banking and Currency and Aids, Loans and Debt Management on the Restructuring of Ways and Means Advances and approve the recommendations therein (Laid: 2/5/2023), approve the requested additional N1 trillion Ways and Means advances for the implementation of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act as passed by the National Assembly.
“Approve the securitization of the total outstanding Ways and Means amount under the following terms: amount N23,719,703,774,306.90, Tenor 40 years Moratorium on Principal Repayment 3 years, pricing/Interest Rate 9 per cent per annum.”
President Buhari initially proposed the restructuring of the loan in December 2022 and requested both chambers of the National Assembly to approve the proposal.
However, the lawmakers failed to consider the request during plenary in January, despite their promise to do so before proceeding on the election break.
All these borrowings by the federal government even when the present government is less than one month to hand over the power are too bad and evil-minded. It shows that this regime does not have any goodwill for Nigeria as they want to impoverish Nigerian before leaving the office i