Debt Restructuring: Ways and Means not sustainable for budget funding – Wale Edun  

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said that the federal budget cannot be sustained by the Ways and Means advances from the Central Bank of Nigeria.  

The Minister made this statement on Monday at the National Economic Summit in Abuja.  

According to Edun, monetary policy instruments are not meant to fund fiscal deficit, stating that the present administration is addressing the imbalances between both sides of the economy.  

He said,  

Responding to questions on the current foreign exchange crisis, the finance minister confirmed that the government is working to ensure ease of transaction and access in the foreign exchange market.

He stated that the system will be simplified and digitized to ensure transparency and promote liquidity in the market.  

Furthermore, Edun revealed that the President recently signed two executive orders to effectively and legally allowed the inflow of supply of foreign exchange from the domestic market into the formal banking system.  

He stated,  

Ways and Means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls. 

Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007, stipulates that the total amount of Ways and Means Advances outstanding shall not at any time exceed 5 percent of the previous year’s actual revenue of the federal government. 

Presently, Nigeria ways and means loan stands around N22.7 trillion, raising a lot of questions on the legitimacy of the statutory limit of the loan.