The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Wale Edun, lamented on Wednesday during an interface with the senate committee on finance that the current inflation in the country was as a result of the N22.7 trillion minted by the central Bank of Nigeria through ways and Means overdraft for the Federal Government from 2014 to 2023 under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Edun said the minting of naira in trillions was carried out without any corresponding productive activities. The consequences of the Eight years of minting money without productivity is high inflation confronting the country now.
The Senate had two weeks ago resolved to probe the N30tn Ways and Means overdraft obtained and spent by the Buhari administration. It further stated that the alleged reckless spending of the overdraft collected from the CBN under Godwin Emefiele largely accounted for the food and security crises 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.”
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 stated, “We should not be despondent. We have done the hard part. Mr. President, through the bold and courageous measures which are recognised around the world as being beyond the usual, what you would normally see.
“To so riskily and robustly change the things that are wrong. And it wasn’t just a set of measures. It’s not just lifting of subsidy here or margin of rates there. No. It is a strategic plan, the whole fiscal side, the government’s finances have been repaired.”
