According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), the overall amount of debt held by the Federal Government will be increased by the N20 trillion in "Ways and Means" loans made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The DMO's Director-General, Patience Oniha, told reporters that it could only be done after receiving the required consents from the appropriate authorities.
The "Ways and Means" advances will be securitized, according to a declaration made by Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning.
"The CBN and I have come to broad terms. As a result, processing is underway for both the National Assembly's and the Federal Executive Council's (FEC) approval.
“After these approvals, the amount will be included in the published public debt data,’’ she said.
Newsmen reports that the Federal Government had been borrowing from the CBN through “Ways and Means’’, a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls.
Meanwhile, Ahmed announced that government would repay the N20 trillion indebtedness to the CBN with securities such as treasury bills and bonds issuance.
She said this while giving a breakdown of the 2023 Appropriation Bill, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the securitisation of the N20 trillion debt.
“The total Ways and Means are N20 trillion, and Buhari has approved its securitisation. The securitisation will be over 40 years with an interest rate of nine per cent.
“Over the years, we have been paying the interest component at the current rate that is charged on the Ways and Means,” she said.
Some stakeholders complained that the Federal Government’s borrowing from the CBN had exceeded five per cent threshold of the prior year’s revenue, as stipulated by the CBN Act, 2007.
They, however, agreed that plans to repay Ways and Means loans through treasury bills do not contravene the CBN Act.
Newsmen recall that the country’s total public debt stock, which the DMO recently announced as N42.84 trillion will witness a sharp increase to N62.84 trillion when the Ways and Means advances are included.