turned in a higher net profit for 2022, achieved amid a sharp deterioration in the credit quality of its risk assets.
Its lending to the government constituted as much as 74 per cent of the loans and receivables that contributed N610 billion of both the total impairment loss and credit loss expenses for the year. That defies the law allowing not more than 5 per cent of the government’s preceding year’s revenue to be advanced and requiring that the credit be repaid in the same year of borrowing.
The overdraft will shoot up Nigeria’s current debt by half to around N69 trillion when the process is completed. According to the 2022 financials, the CBN borrowed N3.1 trillion and N230 billion from big global lenders JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, summing up to a balance of N3.3 trillion in 2021.