The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Wale Edun said N22.7tn printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria t under former President Muhammadu Buhari, is responsible for the current inflation in the country.
Edun stated this while briefing the Senate Committee on Finance in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the consequence of the eight years of printing money without productivity is the high inflation confronting the country now.
Two weeks ago, the Senate resolved to investigate the N30 trillion Ways and Means overdraft obtained and spent by the Buhari administration.
Furthermore, it was asserted that the purported reckless spending of the overdraft obtained from the CBN under Godwin Emefiele significantly contributed to the food and security crises currently facing the country.
The Red Chamber then resolved to set up an Ad -hoc committee, to investigate the overdraft because the details of the spending were deliberately not made available to the National Assembly.
He said, “We talked about inflation, and you have helped to solve that. Where has it come from?
It came from the eight 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.”
He added, “You distinguished senators have helped. You have given us the mandate to raise N7tn, which we will do by sucking money from the market, using it to pay back the central bank and giving the government a balanced book. We are going to audit even the N22.7tn printed aimlessly.”
Edun said 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 N13tn revenue generated from the non-oil sector in 2023, adding that the trajectory is being improved upon in 2024.
