NAssembly Resumes Today, N23.7tn Loan Restructuring Tops Agenda
The National Assembly will resume its Christmas and New Year recess on Tuesday (today) to deal with outstanding matters of national interest, one of which is the President's request, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Ret.), for the Restructuring of Ways and Means Advances from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
On December 28, 2022, the National Assembly adopted the Finance Bill 2023, the Supplementary Finance Bill 2022 and the Finance Bill 2022 and began the recess.< /p>
A few days earlier, Buhari had asked the Senate and the House of Representatives to approve the restructuring of WMAs donated to the federal government by the CBN, noting that the balance, as of December 19, 2022, was of N23,719,703,774,306.90.
Although the House has yet to consider the presidential request, it suffered a setback in the Senate on December 28, 2022, after the chamber granted it expedited processing.
Buhari later warned that the country would pay an additional 1.8 tn in interest this year if the National Assembly rejects a loan-for-bond swap request on CBN overdrafts to the government .
The PUNCH recently reported that the federal government paid interest of tn 4.12 between 2019 and 2022 on loans it obtained from the CBN through the advances on ways and means, according to the data of the medium-term expenditure framework and the budget strategy documents and the public presentation documents of the budgets approved by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.< /p>
However, Senate Speaker Ahmad Lawan also said at least twice after the Senate rejection that lawmakers would reconsider domestic borrowing.
However, there are indications that the presidential request could suffer a similar fate in the House, as some MPs who spoke to our correspondent are divided on the matter.
Some House members have said domestic borrowing violates not only the CBN Act, but also the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Others, however, argued that the government should borrow to make life easier for the people.
Another Delta State member, Nicholas Ossai, recalled how he was ruled out of order when he stood up to speak about the country's rising debt profile under the current regime . He noted, however, that the government has no choice but to take out loans to solve the emergency problems affecting the people.
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The National Assembly will resume its Christmas and New Year recess on Tuesday (today) to deal with outstanding matters of national interest, one of which is the President's request, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Ret.), for the Restructuring of Ways and Means Advances from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
On December 28, 2022, the National Assembly adopted the Finance Bill 2023, the Supplementary Finance Bill 2022 and the Finance Bill 2022 and began the recess.< /p>
A few days earlier, Buhari had asked the Senate and the House of Representatives to approve the restructuring of WMAs donated to the federal government by the CBN, noting that the balance, as of December 19, 2022, was of N23,719,703,774,306.90.
Although the House has yet to consider the presidential request, it suffered a setback in the Senate on December 28, 2022, after the chamber granted it expedited processing.
Buhari later warned that the country would pay an additional 1.8 tn in interest this year if the National Assembly rejects a loan-for-bond swap request on CBN overdrafts to the government .
The PUNCH recently reported that the federal government paid interest of tn 4.12 between 2019 and 2022 on loans it obtained from the CBN through the advances on ways and means, according to the data of the medium-term expenditure framework and the budget strategy documents and the public presentation documents of the budgets approved by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.< /p>
However, Senate Speaker Ahmad Lawan also said at least twice after the Senate rejection that lawmakers would reconsider domestic borrowing.
However, there are indications that the presidential request could suffer a similar fate in the House, as some MPs who spoke to our correspondent are divided on the matter.
Some House members have said domestic borrowing violates not only the CBN Act, but also the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Others, however, argued that the government should borrow to make life easier for the people.
Another Delta State member, Nicholas Ossai, recalled how he was ruled out of order when he stood up to speak about the country's rising debt profile under the current regime . He noted, however, that the government has no choice but to take out loans to solve the emergency problems affecting the people.
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