By Muhammad Mamman
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has recovered roughly ₦2 trillion from legacy intervention programmes, a move the bank calls a “system-wide cleanup” and a signal that it will no longer operate as a direct lender.
The disclosure came on Tuesday from CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso during the post-Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) briefing in Abuja. The audit revealed that over the past decade, intervention loans totalling ₦10.93 trillion were disbursed — of which ₦4.69 trillion remain outstanding.
Cardoso described the ₦2 trillion recovery as “a humongous amount of money,” but stressed that the unpaid portion now constrains the bank’s capacity to roll out new interventions. According to him, continuing intervention lending would risk destabilising the economy once again.
He argued that past intervention programmes had distorted the financial system — weakening market discipline and stifling private-sector innovation by crowding out commercial lenders. “Interventions cannot continue,” Cardoso affirmed.
Instead, the CBN under Cardoso says it is pivoting to its core mandate of monetary policy and acting as a catalyst — using its convening power to nudge banks and development finance institutions toward sectors needing long-term capital, rather than directly disbursing funds.
The clean-up of past intervention liabilities, officials say, is part of a broader push to restore transparency, rebuild trust in monetary policy, and enhance the credibility of the apex bank.
