The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday defended its 2014 budget proposal before the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Finance, the first of such an exercise in about five years.
Under Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the suspended CBN governor, the central bank had invoked its independence, as documented in the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) and the CBN Act, as a reason for it not to subject itself to the budget defence at the National Assembly.
This is just as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, ordered all committees yet to complete their 2014 budget defence reports before the Committee on Appropriation to ensure that they do so latest today.
Deputy Governor in charge of Corporate Services at the CBN, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, who defended the CBN’s 2014 budget, put the projected revenue for the fiscal year at N553 billion, with expected income and projected expenditure of N377.9 billion.
He also gave a picture of its last year’s budget performance, under which the bank superseded its target on expenditure by more than N326 billion.
The central bank also budgeted N413. 374 billion for the same purpose but ended up spending a staggering N739. 640 billion, Barau said.
He explained that the bulk of the 2013 excess expenditure was spent on “liquidity management” in the economy.
Equally, the bank, according to him, earmarked N180 billion for liquidity management but spent N536.6 billion. In the same period, the total income that accrued to it stood at N600.53 billion.
Other details indicated interest on foreign investments (N80.175 billion); interest on domestic investments (N388.208 billion); interest on domestic loans and advances (N13.540 billion), and others N118.61 billion.
The banks staff strength currently stands at 6,661.
Meanwhile, during a plenary session, Tambuwal read a communication from Hon John Enoh, Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, stating that committees should submit their defence reports today or face exclusion from the 2014 budget.
