SANUSI RESPONDS 9: FRCN GAVE US WAIVER TO PREPARE OUR AUDUTED ACCOUNTS OUTSIDE ITS REGULATION FOR 2012 ... EVEN THE FRCN GAVE ITSELF WAIVER AS IT DID NOT PREPARE ITS OWN AUDITED ACCOUNTS UNDER THE SAME REGULATIONS Briefing Note Allegation 26: that the CBN did not comply with the IFRS accounting standards in preparing its 2012 financial statements. Response: i. It has been and remains a cardinal policy of the CBN to comply with statutory requirements and policy guidelines of regulators. In recognition of the peculiar nature of the CBN as a central bank and its peculiar responsibilities, its migration to the IFRS would require extended time to comply with the Act. ii. In view of this reality, I wrote the FRCN via a letter dated 14thFebruary 2013, requesting for a temporary exemption to allow the CBN prepare the 2012 financial statements based on the existing financial reporting framework. iii. The FRCN waived the requirement for the CBN to comply with the IFRS standards in preparing its 2012 financial statements by its letter of exemption dated 26 February 2013. See Annexure Pfor the FRCN’s letter. iv. In January 2010, the published Report of the Committee on the Roadmap for the adoption of IFRS in Nigeria (the Roadmap), allowed Public Interest Entities, in the nature of CBN,to delay the adoption of the IFRS financial statements until 31 December 2013. See Annexure Q for the Roadmap.It is probably for the same reason the FRCN itself did not prepare its audited financial statements in accordance with IFRS for the year ended 2012. v. It is worth noting that very few Central Banks in the world are able to comply with IFRS due to a number of factors peculiar to the nature of central banking, especially in the following areas: a. Accounting for Change in the value of Gold reserves. b. Management of government foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate fluctuations. c. Disclosure challenges around monetary policy interventions and its activities as lender of last resort to financial institutions, and guarantor to government borrowing. d. Valuation of assets held in foreign currencies. e. Challenges around weekly Treasury Bill sales. f. Management of years of deficit after surplus has been transferred to the government in the year of surplus. g. Funding government deficit financing as enshrined in section 38 of the CBN Act 2007.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 12:37:44 +0000