N22.7trn Request: Nigeria Risks Additional N1.8trn Debt As Senate Ignores President Muhammadu Buhari

The Senate yesterday failed to pass the much-talked about N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request forwarded to it by President Muhammadu Buhari in December, 2022 and proceeded on recess until after the conduct of the presidential and the National Assembly elections.

The failure of the Senate to pass the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request by President Buhari had put Nigeria at the risk of incurring additional N1.8 trillion debt as warned by the President three weeks ago when he assented to the N21.83 trillion 2023 budget.

In jettisoning the request, consideration for it was neither listed on the Order Paper used for plenary on Wednesday nor mentioned by the Senate leader who is the Chairman of the special committee set up for that purpose.

On Tuesday last week, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, declared that the Senate was ready to approve the request, provided required details of the spending were made available by the Finance Minister , Zainab Ahmed and Governor of the Central Bank , Godwin Emefiele.

He said if not for Restructuring of N22.7 trillion Ways and Means request , the Senate and by extension, the House of Representatives would have adjourned plenary on Thursday last week till after the Presidential and National Assembly election.

“We must have necessary information for passage of the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request as time is not on our side in the Senate now in view of the coming general elections.

“ If there is need for the Senate to sit up to Friday (last week) for thorough consideration and passage of the request , it will be done but the affected officials from the executive must also expedite action on provision of required information as regards documents authorising approval and disbursement of the monies totalling N22.7 trillion”, he had said.

But the Senator Gobir led committee did not present any report for consideration by the Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, causing the Senate to adjourn without approving it as earlier planned.

Sources close to the committee told LEADERSHIP that the expected details from the executive arm of government on how the N22.7trillion was expended within 10 years, were not provided.

Nigeria as warned by President Muhammadu Buhari three weeks ago , risks incurring additional N1.8 billion with non – approval of the requested N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring by the National Assembly.

President Buhari who gave the warning when assenting to the N21.83 trillion 2023 budget had said : “ Balance of N22.7 trillion Ways and Means, has accumulated over several years and represents funding provided by the CBN as lender of last resort to the government to enable it to meet obligations to lenders, as well as cover budgetary shortfalls in projected revenues and/or borrowings.

‘’I have no intention to fetter the right of the National Assembly to interrogate the composition of this balance, which can still be done even after granting the requested approval.

‘’Failure to grant the securitisation approval will however cost the government about N1.8 trillion in additional interest in 2023 given the differential between the applicable interest rates which is currently MPR plus 3% and the negotiated interest rate of 9% and a 40 year repayment period on the securitised debt of the Ways and Means.”