In the last six months of 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria provided the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Government of Nigeria with an additional N3.8 trillion in Ways and Means Borrowing. 

This is the preliminary data that Nairametrics claims was published in the most current Statistics report for the fourth quarter of 2023, which was just made public by the central bank. 

According to provisional data from the CBN, the total amount increased from N4.4 trillion at the end of June 2023 to N8.2 trillion as of December 2023, representing the government’s outstanding Ways and Means balances. 

The data refutes assertions made by Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance, claiming Tinubu’s administration still needs to take out a loan from the CBN.

During the recent IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, Edun made these remarks in an interview with journalists.

When the Tinubu administration took office in May 2023, the total ways and means balance was N26.95 trillion.

The balances were, nevertheless, securitized as a component of the domestic debt profile of the federal government.

Subsequent investigation revealed that it was N4.36 trillion by the end of June 2023, suggesting that the balances from the previous month may have been transferred to the Debt Management Office, which is in charge of maintaining the nation’s debt records.

But starting in July 2023, the balances rose monthly, first to N4.5 trillion in July and then to N5.1 trillion in August, when they first exceeded the N5.1 trillion threshold. 

With over N1.3 trillion new borrowing each month, September’s total was at N6.4 trillion.

Before slightly increasing to N7.6 trillion in November, it had risen to N7.2 trillion in October.

The total reached N8.21 trillion in December, the last month of the year, indicating an 88% growth in Ways and Means in just six months.

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