The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced that it granted loans totaling N40.67 billion to its staff members by December 2022, as stated in its audited financial report for the same year.
This marked a significant surge of 133.07% from the previous year, where loans amounted to N17.43 billion.
The bank did not furnish details regarding the number of staff benefiting from these loans.
Although, its website did provide insights into the current staff count.
The bank also disclosed that despite offering N155.63 billion in staff allowances in 2022, a substantial debt still remained.
These allowances encompassed various categories, such as furniture, housing, leave, transport, productivity, and other compensations.
Notably, the sum of these allowances exceeded the bank’s recorded profit of N65.63 billion during the review period and surpassed the N113.35 billion spent on staff allowances in 2021.
Additionally, a comprehensive assessment revealed that the CBN incurred a total of N1.2 trillion in personnel expenses over seven years, while recording a net income of N520.04 billion.
The financial reports for the period from 2016 to 2022 demonstrated fluctuations in the bank’s profit, with staff emoluments consistently rising by 119% throughout the seven-year span.
The audited accounts, recently released and verified by Ernst & Young and KPMG, indicated that credit loss expenses for the bank escalated to N875.2 billion in 2022, compared to N498.2 billion in the preceding year.