Nigeria’s central bank owes $7.5 billion to JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, the apex bank said in its consolidated financial statements published for the first time in seven years amid an ongoing investigation.
The bank also said in a statement published on its website that it owes another $6.3 billion in foreign currency forwards with undisclosed parties, as part of its liabilities.
The bank said it received loans from Goldman Sachs of $500 million each and $7 billion from JP Morgan in 2021.
“The Group entered into a securities lending agreement with Goldman Sachs and J. P. Morgan and as part of the agreement, the Group pledged its holdings on foreign securities in return for cash,” the central bank report said.
It did not provide further information on the securities pledged in exchange for loans.
The audited consolidated financial statements are for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 financial periods, it said.
The disclosures come after incoming President Bola Tinubu criticized and dismissed central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele on June 9 for his handling of the bank’s affairs and appointed a financial watchdog to investigate the bank’s operations.
The forensic audit ongoing at the bank is part of “planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy” Tinubu said in a statement at the time he launched the investigation.
One of Emefiele’s deputies, Folashodun Shonubi, is currently acting as the central bank governor, pending the conclusion of the investigation and reforms.
Tinubu’s reforms at the bank are part of the boldest changes in Nigeria’s economy in years and are part of his broader plan to expand the economy by at least 6% per year.
As part of the changes to the country’s financial management, the president has also removed the central bank’s currency controls that had kept the naira artificially high, sending it almost 40% weaker to the dollar as a result.
He also eliminated a petrol subsidy that had cost the government $10 billion last year, causing fuel prices to jump.
Large scale theft in the oil sector has eroded government revenue leading to frequent cash bailouts by the central bank to plug government deficits, a trend the president has pledged to reverse.—Zawya News
