A bill to liquidate the outstanding Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) Ways and Means of N30 trillion to “minimise inflationary pressure” in the country will soon be tabled before the Senate.
The bill, which is yet to be presented during plenary, is sponsored by Senator Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East) and co-sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (PDP, Sokoto South), Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia North) and nine others.
It is titled ‘A bill for an act to make emergency economic provisions to restore macroeconomic stability through an inflationary reduction programme involving the liquidation of the outstanding CBN’s Ways and Means’.
This is amidst the Senate’s ongoing probe into how the N30 trillion Ways and Means advance was obtained from the CBN and spent by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
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The Senate ad hoc committee investigating the Ways and Means as well as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, is chaired by Senator Isa Jibrin (Kogi East).
The committee is expected to submit the report of its findings to the Senate committee of whole by September 2024.
Daily Trust reports that Ways and Means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls.
The bill, a copy of which was exclusively obtained by Daily Trust from the National Assembly in Abuja, also proposes to reduce the inflation rate to not more than 18.60% by the end of 2026 as projected in the medium-term expenditure framework 2024-2026.
The ‘explanatory memorandum’ of the bill says, “The bill basically makes provision for emergency economic measures to significantly reduce inflation rate to not more than 18.60% by the end of 2026 through raising of a minimum of $30 billion over a period of 24 months in the proportion of 70% foreign currency and 30% in local currency.
“The bill makes provision for the proceeds to be primarily used to extinguish the outstanding Ways and Means of N30 trillion in the books of CBN.
“This will have the effect of positioning the CBN to discharge its mandate of maintaining price stability more effectively as well as ushering in economic conditions necessary for the implementation of the government’s 8-point agenda consistent with the national development plan.”
Daily Trust reports that the bill also proposes the creation of Inflation Reduction Fund as well as a Public Assets Sale Committee, to be saddled with the responsibility of identifying, classifying and valuing federal government’s assets earmarked for disposal.
Part 1, of the bill proposes to “reduce the fiscal deficit for GDP ratio through a reduction in the FG’s annual obligation of N2.7 trillion to the CBN in respect to the Ways and Means.”
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