An investment and economic expert, Titewa Adebajo, has called for consequences over the N23.7 trillion Ways and Means advance from the Central Bank of Nigeria to the federal government.
Adebajo made this call on Tuesday in an Arise TV interview monitored by Bellnewsonline.com.
He stated that according to CBN’s Act on Ways and Means, the bank’s advances to the federal government should be at most N500 billion to one trillion.
Adebajo described the whooping N23.7 trillion Ways and Means finance to the government as illegal.
He added that the federal government must come out clean on the exact amount of debt, stating that there is a need for the apex bank to make its account public.
He said: “There is no law that states that you need to take the Ways and Means of loans to the National Assembly for approval; all the domestic debt doesn’t need approval from anybody other than its advisory board.”
He queried why CBN would approve N23 trillion of Ways and Means financing without legal backing, calling it a mistake and stating that “people who make these mistakes have to pay the price.”
He added: “The government has to come out clean on the exact debt of the country; is it more than $200bn? It is more than N77bn debt because there is $200bn I can account for.”
Ways and Means represent short-term emergence finance rendered by CBN to the government.
Last week, while signing the 2023 budget into law, President Muhammadu Buhari asked the Senate to reconsider approving his administration’s 23.7 trillion Ways and Means.