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The Senate has expressed its intention to summon former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, concerning the N30 trillion ‘Ways and Means’ advances issued during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
This decision comes in the wake of inadequate explanations from the current CBN leadership regarding the transactions. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on ‘Ways and Means’ from Kogi East, Senator Jibrin Isah, made this known after a session with CBN officials, including the Deputy Governor, at the National Assembly in Abuja. The Senate’s move is part of a broader inquiry led by Isah’s ad-hoc committee, established to scrutinize the acquisition and utilization of the CBN’s Ways and Means loans under Buhari’s tenure. The committee is tasked with delving into the intricacies of the financial mechanism known as ‘Ways and Means,’ a facility that allows the CBN to cover government budget deficits. Additionally, the probe extends to the examination of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, another financial initiative from the same period. During the engagement with CBN representatives, Senator Isah unveiled that their preliminary findings indicated that Emefiele had autonomously authorized several transactions, an action the committee deems unlawful. He said, “The CBN made a presentation on the ‘Ways and Means’ and on the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, and we were able to extract so much information from them and that will prepare us for the next line of discussion with them. Basically, we were able to make presentations on the Ways and a means with regards to the beneficiaries of those loans. “But we had issues, issues of approval. We discovered that the CBN governor unilaterally gave approvals and we feel that is abnormal. We asked them for explanations in that regard, they don’t have immediate explanations and I want to believe that they want to go back home, check their records and at the next meeting, they will be able to provide us with those explanation. “We believe that every approval must be given by committee of members, the governor and the deputy, that is the standard. Where the governor Aline gives an approval, that also is confusing and that, they will provide answered to us.” He said if the current leadership of the CBN does not provide the needed answers, the committee would summon Emefiele. He said, “Where it is absolutely necessary, we will not hesitate to invite the former CBN governor, Emefiele.” Speaking on the discussion regarding the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, Senator Isah said, “With respect to Anchor Borrowers, the performance today on the average is impressive. About 70 percent of the loans have been settled. The rest 30 percent are loans given to low income farmers and the risk there is that, those low income farmers do not have what it takes to perform to expectations. “They don’t have the necessary equipment, they don’t have the necessary knowhow. So that is where we are going to have possible problems of loan default. “And we are talking about N358 billion, spread all over the country. But we have advised them that those loans were processed through commercial banks, the credit risk lies with the commercial banks. And the commercial banks should go after those borrowers to recover their monies. We told them that they should try and go into a round table discussion with those commercial banks that purportedly guaranteed those loans. “Those loans were guaranteed by the commercial banks and those commercial banks are still in existence. The credit burden lies with the commercial banks and they know what to do because all the accounts of commercial banks are domiciled with the CBN. They may have to go to the extent of evoking the rules that we all know.”
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