The Senate committee investigating the controversial N30 trillion Ways and Means loans, which were secured from the Central Bank of Nigeria under the leadership of former Governor Godwin Emefiele, has received new documents from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, according to The PUNCH.
The panel is now preparing to resume physical hearings after reviewing these newly obtained documents. The investigation was initially launched following a Senate resolution on February 20, which sought to examine the loan’s alleged role in exacerbating Nigeria’s food and security crises. The Senate’s inquiry had earlier identified 13 potential infractions in the process of acquiring the loan.
A letter from the Senate’s Committee on Ways and Means, dated June 19, 2024, and signed by Senator Isah Jibrin (APC, Kogi East), had formally requested additional information from the OAGF to advance the investigation. The documents finally arrived at the National Assembly on Thursday, and have been distributed to the committee members for review.
One Senate source revealed, “The documents from the Office of the Accountant General regarding the probe of the N30tn Ways and Means came on Thursday; the documents have been given to the chairman and the members of the panel.”
Confirming the development, Senator Jibrin stated, “Yes, the documents have come from the AGF and have been distributed to all panel members. At the moment, we are all studying it and once that is concluded we will resume physical meetings hopefully by next week.” He also reassured the public of the committee’s commitment to thorough investigation, stating, “Nigerians can be assured that we will ensure due diligence and see that we do not let them down. Like I earlier said, we had never stopped working on the probe, we just needed more documents and now that we have them, nothing can hold us back.”
Contrary to reports suggesting the committee had stalled due to discrepancies over the loan amount, Jibrin clarified that there were no disputes regarding the figures being examined. He addressed the confusion by stating, “We have not gone into limbo; we only needed additional documents from the Accountant-General’s office to continue the interface. The amount under probe is N30tn. I don’t know why people are spreading falsehood to achieve a selfish purpose.”
During the Ninth Assembly, President Muhammadu Buhari had requested on December 20, 2022, the restructuring of the accumulated N22.7 trillion Ways and Means loans, along with an additional N1 trillion for the 2022 supplementary budget, bringing the total to N23.7 trillion. President Buhari’s letter explained, “The Ways and Means are advances from the Central Bank of Nigeria to the federal government for emergency funding due to delayed fiscal deficits. As of December 19, 2022, the balance of Ways and Means was N22.7tn. I have approved the securitisation of these balances under the following terms: Amount, N23.7tn; Tenure, 40 years; Moratorium on principal repayment, three years; Interest rate, 9 per cent. Your concurrence and approval are sought to allow for the implementation of the same.”
Subsequently, the Ahmad-Lawan-led Ninth Senate approved this request, and on December 30, 2023, the Tenth Senate sanctioned President Bola Tinubu’s request to securitize the remaining N7.3 trillion of the Ways and Means Advances under the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government.
