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Godwin Emefiele
The Nigeria's highest financial institution, CBN has clarified media report over the loss of N500 billion to a private investment by its officials.
In a publicised audio clip which mirrored a private conversation by Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, Edward Adamu, deputy CBN governor and two other top officials of the institution, SaharaReporters, an online news platform, alleged a cover up of bad private investment in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by the officials.
But, Isaac Okorafor, the CBN's spokesman, explained that contrary to belief that the officials tried to cover-up a fradulent transaction, they were in fact finding a solution to a certain misunderstanding that seemed to affect the CBN balance sheet.
In the audio, the CBN governor was heard saying “To avoid any serious problem is just, the government to have to agree to give us at least 100 billion cash but the government will not agree. They will kick against it.”
The officials also talked about the reactions of the opposition party including the impacts of their actions on the economy.
“I’ll have to think of a way out because we cannot afford it at all.
“The implications are just too many to even think about and damaging. We cannot allow this like this, we cannot,” Mr Emefiele was quoted as saying in the audio.
CBN Explains Audio
According to Mr Okorafor, the National Economic Management Team and the National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, had approached the CBN in 2015 to assist state governments with Conditional Budget Support.
The support was to assist states to pay the salaries, pensions and gratuities of their workers in the aftermath of the significant drop in global oil prices and associated Federation Accounts allocations.
He said to facilitate the recovery of the economy from the continuous impact of the recession, the CBN provided about N650 billion in loans at 9 per cent with a two-year grace period to 35 states of the Federation.
Isaac Okorafor
“These monies were distributed to the states monthly with documented approval of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Presidency.
“In closing the Bank’s 2018 accounts, external auditors in their Draft Account, erroneously classified about N150 billion of these loans as bad, which negatively affected the Bank’s Balance Sheet and shareholders fund,” Mr Okorafor said.
He said the ‘selective conversation’ referred to in the online report was simply a discussion to ascertain why the auditors took that position and next steps to resolve it.
The CBN spokesperson said following the discussion, it became clear to the officials that a state government’s loan cannot be classified as “bad” or “irrecoverable” when the state still exists and receiving monthly allocations from FAAC.
Consequently, he said, the CBN reached out to the Federal Ministry of Finance, which jointly confirmed to the auditors who accepted the discrepancy in writing that these monies would be repaid.
He said on this basis, the auditors reversed the negative entry and certified that the CBN’s 2018 accounts were a true reflection of the state of affairs.
“Reconciliation of Balance Sheet items are regular conversations amongst senior management of many agencies and should not be misconstrued as anything but that,” Mr Okorafor said.
He urged all well-meaning Nigerians to disregard the “audio and continue to trust that the Bank is doing everything it can to represent their interests in the best possible way.
“Under the leadership of Governor Emefiele, the CBN has always stood for, and vigorously pursued transparency in its stewardship of public resources and policies. NO MONIES ARE MISSING OR STOLEN.
“The integrity of the CBN Governor remains unassailable. He has no account in Dubai or anywhere in the world and would never convert the funds of CBN for personal use. Not in the past, not now and not ever.
“The use of selective wiretapped conversations of the Bank’s Management, to malign his character and integrity will never stand. The Bank will pursue every legal means to bring the perpetrators to justice,” he said.
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