Senate suspends Buhari’s request to approve N23.7trn already spent

The Senate has suspended the consideration of a request by President Muhammadu Buhari to approve N23.7 trillion that has been spent.

PremiumTimes reports that, the decision to suspend the request was a sequel to a rowdy session carried out by lawmakers who opposed the request and described it as unconstitutional.

In a letter to the Senate last week, President Muhammadu Buhari sought the lawmakers’ approval of the N23.7 trillion Ways and Means advances.

The Ways and Means are advances (or funds) from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the federal government for emergency funding of delayed receipt of fiscal deficit.

The president said the amount has been a funding option to the federal government to cater for short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government expected cash receipt of physical deficit.

The Ways and Meansbalances as of 19 December 2022 is 22.7 trillion, ” he said in the letter. “I have approved the securitisation of the ways and means balances along the following terms – Amount, N23.7 trillion; Tenure,40 years; Moratorium on principal repayment, three years; Pricing interest rate, nine per cent.”

Many lawmakers who opposed the president’s request either said it was against the laws or wondered why the National Assembly was not notified when the amount was taken from the apex bank.