Concerned by the Nigeria’s increasing debt burden, the Senate has set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Ways and Means and the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
The programmes, which were aimed at providing financial support to state governments, manufacturers, aviation, banks, power sector, and smallholder farmers, among others, have raised concerns over their impact on the nation’s debt profile, which stood at 38 percent of GDP as of 2022.
The committee, led by Senator Isah Jibrin of Kogi East, was inaugurated on Monday by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who urged the members to conduct a thorough and impartial inquiry into the details of the CBN’s programmes.
The decision to probe the CBN’s programmes followed a report by the National Assembly Joint Committees on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions (BIOFI), Finance, National Planning, Agriculture, and Appropriation on the state of the economy, which sparked a heated debate in the Senate in early February.
During the debate, Senator Adamu Aliero claimed that some state governors, including some former ones in the Senate, had received N18 billion as shock absorbers under the Ways and Means since 2015.
The Ways and Means is a mechanism that allows the CBN to lend money to the federal government to cover its budget deficit, while the Anchor Borrowers Programme is an agricultural intervention scheme that links smallholder farmers to reputable companies for the production and processing of key agricultural commodities.
Some senators suggested that a special committee be established to scrutinise the N30 trillion intervention disbursements (some of which were grants) and ways to recover them.
In his inaugural speech, Akpabio charged the committee to leave no stone unturned in its investigation, which is expected to last for six weeks. He also advised the members to set aside personal and partisan interests, and focus on the task at hand.
He said the committee should constantly engage with relevant stakeholders and consultants, and maintain open lines of communication with the executive and the public, but not disclose any aspect of the report until the task is completed.
He said the investigation was crucial for the Senate to make laws that would ensure the prudent and efficient management of the country’s resources.
The inauguration was attended by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso; the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein; the Auditor-General of the Federation, Shaakaa Chira; the Director General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, and representatives of the beneficiary ministries, departments and agencies, institutions, states, and local governments..