Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a nonprofit legal and advocacy group, says it has sued President Muhammadu Buhari over the $25 billion ways and means loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) asking the court to compel the president to disclose details of overdrafts and repayments since 2015.
SERAP disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, adding that secrecy related to overdrafts is against the interest of the public.
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What SERAP’s statement said
“We’ve sued President Buhari over $25 billion overdrafts taken from the CBN, asking the court to compel him to disclose details of overdrafts and repayments since 2015.
Secrecy around CBN overdrafts is antithetical to the public interest, the common good and oath of office.”
They added that suit no FHC/ABJ/CS/559/2021 was filed last week at the Federal High Court, Abuja, which also sought “an order to compel the president to explain and clarify whether the $25 billion (N9.7 trillion) overdraft from the CBN is within the 5% limit of the actual revenue of FG for 2020.”
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What you should know
Nairametrics reported in February that the Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha said, the federal government owes the CBN about N10 trillion (circa $25 billion).
- Total Ways and Means of about N10 trillion will be formalized.
- It will be converted into bonds and paid back over the next 30 years.
- There will be a moratorium of principal for the first two years.
- The bonds will not be sold in the open market but to select investors.
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How CBN sources the loan
The total of Ways and Means funding issued by the CBN to the FG will be classified as an asset in the balance sheet of the CBN under loans and receivables. Going by the accounting rule, there should be a liability side classifying how the money was funded. In theory, it could be via the printing of new money or issuance of bills, or regulatory induced policies.
