The Central Bank of Nigeria has been accused of being opaque in the disclosure of its financial accounts to Nigerians and has been urged to emulate the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Muda Yusuf made the claim on Arise TV, while commenting on the removal of fuel subsidies, the government’s escalating debt profile, and the ways and means funding of the government by the CBN.
Both the CBN and the NNPCL are phenomenal for the country’s survival. The CBN is in charge of the monetary policy while the NNPCL generate revenue for the country from the multi-billion dollar oil and gas industry.
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The CBN has been on the news over the N22trn ways and means loan given to the government in contravention of the CBN Act.
In contravention of the Act, the Nigerian government has also received approval from legistlators to securitise N22trn debt through a 40-year bond, which is also against the Act.
This has elevated debt under President Muhammadu Buhari by 32.5 per cent from N46.25trn ($103.1bn) in December 2022 to N68.9trn ($153.7bn).
The last time the CBN published its accounts was in 2016 when it published its Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2015.
Since then, the apex Bank has failed to publish its accounts.
Yusuf said, “As far as the NNPC is concerned, the NNPC is more open because under the current GCEO (Mele Kyari), we have seen quite a number of accounts published and accountants should be able to interrogate further the quality of the accounts.
“At least we have something in public space to say that this is the statement of accounts, particularly now they are talking about going public. So, we have seen some traction in terms of openness and transparency in what the NNPC does.
“But as for the CBN Balance sheet, I’m not sure we have much information because I’m not sure if we have seen any audited account of the Central Bank in the three to four years. I’m not sure it is in a public space.
“If you don’t have that kind of financial disclosure publicly, I think it is something we should worry about as far as transparency in governance is concerned.
“Yes, the CBN has consistently touted this idea of autonomy and all that, but sometimes it carries this argument about autonomy too far. There should be disclosure and to me, it is a very major issue and when there is no disclosure, it gives room for all manner of conjecture and people make all manner of conclusions. So, CBN has a major issue with financial disclosure and audited account statement.”
Meanwhile, the NNPC broke a 43 years jinx when it published its first audited accounts in 2020 under its Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.
In 2021, the NNPCL released its 2020 accounts where it posted N287 billion Profit After Tax (PAT) from all its subsidiaries.