…accuses ex-president’s govt of printing Naira for eight years without productivity
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, on Wednesday, blamed the current inflation in the country on printing of trillions of Naira throughout the eight-year tenure of the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari “without productivity.”
Edun stated this during an interface with the Senate Committee on Finance.
According to him, “We are going to audit even the N22.7 trillion printed aimlessly. The N22.7 trillion printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through Ways and Means overdraft for the Federal Government from 2015 to 2023 landed Nigeria into hyper-inflation.
“We talked about inflation. Where has it come from? It came from 8 years of just printing money not matched by productivity. What happened was that for eight years, the weak were left to their own devices. It is the privileged few that took everything. That is 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 which we will do by sucking money from the market, using it to pay back the CBN and giving the government a balanced book. We are going to audit even the N22.7 trillion printed aimlessly.”
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa (APC Niger East), in his closing remarks, said the interactive session would be a continuous exercise so that the committee would have the opportunity of getting the update on the short and long term plans of the government on how to tackle the current economic situation of the country.