CBN owes JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs $7.5b — Report

The consolidated financial statements of the Central Bank of Nigeria have revealed a debt of $7.5 billion to American banks, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs as of the financial year ended December 2022.

Also included as part of the apex bank’s liabilities is another $6.3 billion owed in foreign currency forwards which brings the total liabilities to $13.8 billion.

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“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 cash received from Goldman Sachs is N0.23 trillion ($500 million), 2021: N0.22 trillion ($500 million), and JP Morgan N3.23 trillion ($7 billion), 2021: N3.05 trillion ($7 billion) is recognized in other foreign securities,” the apex bank said.

The CBN’s results also showed that it had reported a profit after tax every year for the last eight years, despite facing currency depreciations and doling out intervention funds and loans to the government, among other development finance activities.

Until now, the results had been withheld from the public under former CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.

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Meanwhile, For the first time since 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has finally released its long-awaited audited accounts, posting a profit of N103.8 billion in 2022, the highest since 2017.

The results, which are published on the CBN website, also had audited results for the last six years which showed the apex bank recorded a profit of N124.4 bin in 2016; N107.3 bn in 2017; N43.7bn in 2018; N34.6 bn in 2019; N30.8bn 2020 and N75.1 bn in 2021.

Further findings showed the loans to the federal government also known as ‘Ways and Means’ totalling N23 trillion earned interest of N1.9 trillion for the apex bank compared to N1.2 trillion in the prior year.

The apex bank’s results reported that it earned an additional N247 billion and N156 billion from Asset Management Company of Nigeria and federal government securities respectively.