'We're Not Aware Of Currency Printing' - CBN Tells Obaseki
Thompson Nsisongabasi
Apr 12, 2021
The Central Bank of Nigeria has reacted to the claim by the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, that the country printed N60 billion as part of federal allocation for March.
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Speaking at the Edo state transition committee stakeholders engagement on Thursday, the governor said Nigeria is in huge financial trouble for taking the decision.
The Edo governor also expressed worry over the country's increased borrowing, saying it was wrong to continue borrowing without a tangible plan for debt repayment.
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Obaseki also lamented the country's dependence on crude oil, saying that it is no longer sustainable.
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He had said: "When we got FAAC for March, the federal government printed additional N50-N60 billion to top-up for us to share.
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"This April, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of this year, our total borrowings is going to be within N15-N16 trillion. Imagine a family that is just borrowing without any means to pay back and nobody is looking at that, everybody is looking at 2023, everybody is blaming Mr. President as if he is a magician.
"Nigeria has changed. The economy of Nigeria is not the same again whether we like it or not. Since the civil war, we have been managing, saying money is not our problem as long as we are pumping crude oil everyday.
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"So we have run a very strange economy and strange presidential system where the local, state and federal government, at the end of the month, go and earn salary. We are the only country in the world that does that.
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"Everywhere else, government rely on the people to produce taxes and that is what they use to run the local government, state and the federation.
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"But with the way we run Nigeria, the country can go to sleep. At the end of the month, we just go to Abuja, collect money and we come back to spend. We are in trouble, huge financial trouble."
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Reacting to the allegation, spokesperson of CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, denied knowledge of the claim made by the Edo governor.
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"I am not aware of that (N60bn printed by the government," he told the PUNCH.
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— Thompson Nsisongabasi