30 May 2023
The recent data from the apex bank shows that the Federal Government borrowed N6.07tn from the Central Bank of Nigeria through Ways and Means Advances in 2022.
This pushed the Federal Government’s borrowing from the CBN from N17.46tn in December 2021 to N23.53tn in December 2022.
It was gathered that the Federal Government might have borrowed more than N6.07tn as the debt was N23.77tn in October 2022.
It appears servicing of the debt might have reduced it slightly to N23.53tn by December.
It will be recalled that the Senate and the House of Representatives recently approved the request of the President for Ways and Means Advances restructuring, which then adds to the existing debt stock.
The Ways and Means provision allows the government to borrow from the apex bank if it needs short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government expected cash receipts of fiscal deficits.
The government has relied heavily on the central bank to finance its expenditure programmes via Ways and Means since the government started experiencing a significant shortfall in revenue,
