The Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government has gotten an additional N3.8 trillion in fresh Ways and Means borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This is according to provisional data published in the latest statistics bulletin for the fourth quarter of the year recently released by the apex bank.
According to the data, the Nigerian government took the loans in the last six months of 2023 despite the claim by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, that President Bola Tinubu’s government had not borrowed money from the CBN.
The CBN’s provisional data showed that the total figure rose from N4.4 trillion at the end of June 2023, meaning that the cumulative Ways and Means balances due by the government grew to N8.2 trillion as of December 2023.
Total Ways and Means balances as of May 2023 when the Tinubu administration took over N26.95 trillion.
However, the balances were securitised and included as part of the federal government’s domestic debt profile.
A breakdown of the data shows that the balance at the end of June 2023 was N4.36 trillion, indicating that the prior month’s balances may have been moved to the Debt Management Office (DMO).
However, from July 2023, the balances increased every month, first to N4.5 trillion in July, then N5.1 trillion in August, crossing the N5.1 trillion mark for the first time.
By September, the total was N6.4 trillion, representing the single largest additional borrowing for a month with about N1.3 trillion. It then climbed to N7.2 trillion in October before rising marginally to N7.6 trillion in November.
At the end of the year, in December, the total hit N8.21 trillion, suggesting that Ways and Means increased by 88 per cent in six months.