The Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu has initiated moves to audit the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means loans approved by the immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was disclosed by Wale Edun, the minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, at the Public Wealth Management Conference in Abuja, where he explained that the details would be released soon.
The event was organised by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) to seek ways of managing the nation’s assets and resources for the overall wellbeing of the people.
Also in attendance at the event is Vice President Kashim Shettima; the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite; Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari; and the Governor of Cross Rivers State, Bassey Otu.
Also at the event were World Bank representatives as well as members of the private sector and the diplomatic corps.
Edun said, “We have to stem liquidity. The Central Bank has led the way in pointing out that the ways and means loans have to be tailed down and eliminated and that is what we agree with.
“We are doing in that direction, there was an inherited amount of N22.7trn in backlogs. We are auditing it and it is like when I am ready to pay a loan from a bank and I ask for an audit before finding the agreed sum to pay.
“But apart from that, how do you get your ways and means down? We have to get revenues up and expenditure reduced as much as possible.”
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