The admittance is coming after an exclusive audio was posted by SaharaReporters which detailed shady transactions of the governor of the CBN with a Dubai based company which later went awry.
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Sunday admitted the audio conversation between governor of the central bank, Godwin Emefiele, deputy governor, Edward Adamu, director of finance Dayo Arowosegbe and special adviser to the governor, Emmanuel Ukeji while they where discussing how to cover up N500 billion Naira which they had invested in a private business that ran aground.
Confirming the audio, the CBN in a press statement on Sunday signed by Issac Okorafor, director corporate communications said the "In closing the Bank’s 2018 accounts, external auditors in their Draft Account, erroneously classified about N150 billion of these loans as bad, which negatively affected the Bank’s Balance Sheet and shareholders fund. The selective conversation being circulated was simply a discussion to ascertain why the auditors took that position and next steps to resolving it. Obviously, it soon became clear that a State Government loan cannot be classified as “bad” or “irrecoverable” when the State still exists and getting FAAC allocations. The Bank then reached out to the Federal Ministry of Finance and they jointly gave comfort to the auditors who accepted in writing that these monies would be repaid. On this basis, the auditors reversed the negative entry and the certified that the CBN’s 2018 accounts were a true reflection of the State of Affairs. Reconciliation of Balance Sheet items are regular conversations amongst Senior Management of many agencies and should not be misconstrued as anything but that".
The admittance is coming after an exclusive audio posted by SaharaReporters which detailed shady transactions of the governor of the CBN with a Dubai based company which later went awry.
Contary to claims by the CBN that N150 billion was a classification error by auditors as "bad loans" in the audio, Emefiele is clearly heard saying "i am not too happy that Arowosegbe led us like this, in fact, that was what i was asking, i said we have an impression that we had 500 billion, he said no...where are we going to find this? Now we are in a very bad situation. The implication for the economy is a no, no, no" he lamented.