The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spent N376.932 billion on staff loans, allowances, and expenses between 2021 and 2022, a review of recently released financial statements of the apex bank has shown.
This was not part of wages and salaries of its staff for the financial years.
Staff loans
The review shows that the loans awarded to the bank’s staff was N40.652 billion in 2022.
The loan portfolio to staff stood at N18.457 billion in 2021, meaning that the apex bank loan to staff grew by 120.25 percent between 2021 and 2022.
Twelve key management personnel owe CBN N862m
A further review of the financial statements shows that the bank’s top management personnel, including the CBN governor, four deputy governors and seven non-executive directors of the bank, owe the bank N862 million as loans and advances in 2022.
These persons were also indebted to the apex bank to the tune of N977 million in 2021.
With N40.652 billion taken as loans by the CBN staff in 2022, the apex bank spent 70.6 percent of its 2022 operating profit on staff loans. The operating profit for 2022 stood at N57.618 billion.
Putting N40.655bn loan to work
What else can the loan given to the CBN staff do? A study of the 2022 budget shows that Nigeria planned to build a motorised borehole at the cost of N10 million. This would mean the money granted as staff loans in 2022 can build 4,065 motorised boreholes.
In 2022, Nigeria planned to construct and furnish a pediatric hospital for N200 million. This would imply that the money granted by the CBN for staff loans can furnish 203 of such hospitals around the country.
The country also planned to construct a block of classrooms for N50 million, meaning that the loan granted by CBN to its staff would have built 813 of such classrooms across the country.
N317.82 billion spent on staff allowances, expenses
A further review has shown that the apex bank spent N186.4 billion on staff allowances and expenses in 2022.
The sum of N131.294 billion had been expended on the same expense in 2021
This development means that in 2022 the CBN spent 15.3 percent of its operating expenses on staff allowances and expenses. The operating expenses of the CBN that year stood at N1.218 trillion.
In 2021, it spent 11.5 percent of its operating expenses on staff allowances and expenses. Total operating expenses stood at N1.132 trillion in 2021.
Staff expenses cover medical expenses, vehicle maintenance, NYSC allowances, and vehicle grant allowances.
The staff expenses gulped N30.891 billion in 2022 and N17.938 billion in 2021.
On the other hand, staff allowances are expected to cater for furniture, housing, leave, transport, productivity allowances, and others paid to the staff during this period.
Staff allowances stood at N155.635 billion in 2022 and N113.356 billion in 2021.
Between 2021 and 2021, the CBN spent N268.991 billion on staff allowances and N48.829 billion on staff expenses.
In two years, N317.82 billion was spent on staff allowances and expenses.
Wages, salaries
These monies differ from the salaries and wages of the staff.
In 2022, wages and salaries stood at N36.711 billion from N33.168 billion in 2021.
The CBN’s bulging loans to its staffs is coming at a time when the country is grappling with revenue challenges, with calls for cuts in the cost of governance. It is also coming at a point questions are raised over the bank’s corporate governance.
The CBN recently released a seven-year audited financial report.
Earlier, President Bola Tinubu had appointed a special investigator, Jim Obazee, to examine the activities of the CBN.
“Staff of every organisation deserve loans, but should it be to that extent? It is wrong to mismanage and misapply public resources just for the benefit of a few,” said Joel Okanam, a Lagos-based economist, who added that “the integrity of the bank was put to question in the last eight years.”