The Minister of Finance Wale Edun said yesterday that the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means debt incurred by the Federal Government will be audited.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy explains that the measure, which has since 1999 been deployed by the various federal administrations to meet urgent financial obligations, including salary payments, might be used sparingly or eventually stopped.
Edun spoke at the ongoing Public Wealth Management Conference organised by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoFI).
Coincidentally, the Senate also resolved yesterday to investigate the use of the N22.7 trillion the Muhammadu Buhari administration borrowed from the Central Bank through Ways and Means as well as other interventions by the apex bank such as the N10 trillion Anchors Borrowers Programme.
An ad-hoc committee constituted to carry out the assignment is also to find out how the N22.7 trillion okayed by the Senate in May 2023 rose to N30 trillion.
From 1999 to May 29, 2023, past governments accessed the Ways and Means (overdraft from the CBN) to meet emergency needs.
At the conference, Edun said: “There was an inherited amount, N22.7 trillion backlog. We are auditing it. It is like when I am ready to pay a loan at the bank, I ask for an audit before agreeing on the sum to pay.
“But apart from that, how do you close your ways and means gap? You get your revenue up and you get your expenditure down as much as possible.”
