National Telescope national telescope newspaper
The N22.7 trillion printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria through Ways and Means overdraft for the federal government from 2015 to 2023, under former President Muhammadu Buhari, landed Nigeria into hyper inflation bedeviling it now, said the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Mr. Wale Edun.
Wale Edun who made the lamentation on Wednesday during an interface with the Senate Committee on Finance, said during the period, printing of Naira in trillions were just carried out without matching it with productivity.
He said the consequence of the eight years of printing money without productivity is high inflation confronting the country now.
“We talked about inflation, and you have helped to solve that. Where has it come from?
“It came from 8 years of just printing money not matched by productivity. It’s not like when you earn dollars and you free the naira alongside it, although there’s even a better way than that. But that’s still not as bad.
“It’s not as if the money is matched by productivity increase in output. It is not. And what happened was that for eight years, the weak were left to their own devices. It is the privileged few that took everything. That’s the reality. So that money supply must be brought back.
“You distinguished senators, have helped. You have given us the mandate to raise N7 trillion naira, which we will do by sucking money from the market, using it to pay back the central bank and give the government a balanced books. We are going to audit even the N22.7 trillion printed aimlessly”, he said.
He however assured the committee members that various damage mitigating economic policies being rolled out by the present government, would in no distant time, bring about great recoveries in terms of lower Inflation rate and improved GDP growth rate.
He specifically informed the committee members that rather than indulging in such money printing or seeking for avoidable loans, the President Bola Tinubu led government, is succeeding greatly in the area of revenue generation with over N13trillion revenue generated from the non -oil sector in 2023 and the trajectory being improved upon in 2024 going by revenues made in January and February.
In his closing remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa (APC Niger East), said the interactive session will be a continuous exercise in knowing the short term and long term plans of government on way out of the precarious situation.
(Blueprint)
