The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr. Godwin Emefiele has said that one of job of the CBN is to print money and lending money.
Emefiele reacting to the statement by Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the governor of the Edo state, that the CBN was printing money on Thursday said ‘Nigeria is unfortunately in a very bad situation, and if you understand the concept of printing of money, it is about lending money.’
He went on to say that CBN’s interventions are meant to address Nigeria’s grim economic outlook and that printing of money is not as if the CBN has gone into the factory to print the naira and start distributing on the streets.
He also threatened that state governments must begin to pay back the Budget Support Loans given to them by the Federal Government in 2016 and 2017 when Nigeria economy was also in a dire situation.
Recall that Obaseki had said that the Federal Government printed money to augment the March revenue shared by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
The governor alleged that the Federal Government is borrowing without a sustainable plan to sort out the debt load.
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The governor also countered the Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed, who had said that Obaseki’s claims were “sad” and “untrue”, saying the minister should rather “rally Nigerians to stem the obvious fiscal slide facing our country”.
He added: “Rather than play the Ostrich”, the government should “take urgent steps to end the current monetary rascality, so as to prevent the prevailing economic challenge from degenerating further.”
Obaseki added: “it is imperative to approach the Nigerian project with all sense of responsibility and commitment and not play to the gallery because ultimately, time shall be the judge of us all.”
Emefiele said: “That is our job. To print is about lending money. So, there is no need of putting all the controversy about printing of money as if we go into the factory, print the naira and start distributing on the streets.
“It’s very inappropriate for people to give colouration to printing of money as if it’s some foreign words coming from the sky”.
Emefiele went on to say: “it’s important for me to put it this way that in 2015/16, the kind of situation we found ourselves in, we did provide a budget support facility to all the states of this country”.
“That loan is still unpaid up till now. We are going to insist on them paying back those monies since they’re accusing us of giving them loans”.
Emefiele said “most countries in the world today are confronted not only by the challenges coming from the COVID-19 pandemic causing economic crisis and the rest of them.
“What I keep saying is that it will be irresponsible for the CBN or any other federal reserve to stand idle and refuse to support its government at this time and what we are doing here is being done in other climes.
“At the last MPC meeting, I gave data on what is being done in other climes to shore up their economy and take them out of recession.
“I’m not going to pretend about it. We are facing a problem about productivity output which is GDP. Luckily, we managed to exit from recession, now we are looking at how to get our head above the water”.
