By Ola Kay
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, has dropped a shocking revelation that whooping N22.7tn printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, through Ways and Means overdraft for the Federal Government of Nigeria from the period of 2015 to 2023, under the immediate past President , Muhammadu Buhari plunged the country into the present hyperinflation facing it currently.
.The Finance Minister stated this before the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday.
He disclosed that at the time, printing of the Naira notes in trillions was done without matching it with productivity.
Edun remarked that the eight years of printing money without productivity has in turn left to the current hyperinflation in the country.
A fortnight ago, the Senate had indicated the need to probe the N30tn Ways and Means spent by the Buhari-led Federal Government, which it believed was recklessly spent.
The Senate also noted that reckless spending of the overdraft collected from the CBN under embattled former apex bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, was responsible for the food and security crises facing the country.
In exercise of it’s oversight function in this regard, the Senate resolved to set up an Ad -hoc committee, with a view to know what the N30tn Ways and Means were spent on by the immediate past administration, arguing that the details of such spending were deliberately not made available to the National Assembly.
But, during the Wednesday session, Edun said that, “We talked about inflation, and you have helped to solve that. Where has it come from? “It came from 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. That’s the reality so that money supply must be brought back.”
Edun added that, “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 N22.7 trillion printed aimlessly.”
He assured the committee members that various measures being injected by the Tinubu-led government, would in no distant time lead to impressive recoveries, including lower Inflation rate and improved GDP growth rate.
He specifically informed the committee members that rather than indulging in such money printing or seeking avoidable loans, the President Bola Tinubu-led government had succeeded greatly in the area of revenue generation with over N13tn revenue garnered from the non-oil sector in 2023 and the trajectory being improved upon in 2024, going by revenues made in January and February.
The coordinating Minister of Economy said that, “We should not be despondent. We have done the hard part.
“Mr. President, through the bold and courageous measures which are recognized 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.”
He assured further saying, “You distinguished Senators, have helped further to encourage and enroll the executive to further repair the finances, the fiscal situation of this country by endorsing and urging us to do something about the leakages in the import duty, waiver system. And we have explained to you what we will do. And even from your body language, I believe you feel that that is in the right direction.”
IThe Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa ( APC Niger East), said in his closing remark that the interactive session will be a continuous, as a way of understanding the short-term and long-term plans of the government, towards resolving the nation’s economic crisis.
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