UPDATED: Senate at emergency session amends CBN Act to raise lending limit to government

The Senate also passed a bill to extend the implementation of the 2022 supplementary budget to December 31, 2023.

Leading the debate on the amendment of the CBN Act, the Senate leader said it was necessary to raise the limit of loans that the apex bank can grant to the federal government because it will enable the government to meet its “future obligation in the approval of the Ways and Means by the National Assembly.”.

This is to enable the federal government to embark on very important projects that will inflate and rejig the economy.”

The Senate had on Wednesday 3 May approved a request by President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the N22.7 trillion loans the CBN extended to the federal government under the provision.

The federal government had said the loan will be repaid with securities such as treasury bills and bonds issuance.

The 2022 supplementary budget of N819,536,937,813 was passed by the Senate last December to finance some unplanned situations that occurred as a result of flooding and other events with a mandate to end the implementation on March 31, 2023.

This was to allow full implementation of the budget, especially in light of the 2022 Supplementary budget approved in December 2022 the extension had allowed MDA’s to utilize a large proportion of funds released to them