CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has finally reacted to the N60 billion allegedly printed by the apex bank.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of printing N60 billion to support StateS Governments.
The Honorable Minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, had denied this claim.
In reaction to the accusation, the CBN Governor while speaking with news men during an unscheduled interview, said the CBN did nothing new or different from what could be done by any Central Bank in other country to help resuscitate its economy.
He says:
“It is very inappropriate for people to just give some colouration to the word printing of money as if it is a foreign word coming from the sky.
“It is important for me to put it this way that in 2015/2016 the kind of situation we found ourselves now, which is even more than what we faced in 2015/2016. We did provide Budget Support Facility for all the States of this country. That loan remained unpaid till now, and we are going to insist on the States paying back those money going forward; since they are accusing us of giving them loan. That’s what they are saying.
“Most countries in the world today are confronted by not only health challenges coming from the pandemic or COVID and also economic crisis and the rest of them. I keep saying this, it would be irresponsible for the Central Bank of Nigeria or any central bank or any FED to stand idle and then refuse to support its government at this time.
“And what is being done; is done in any clime, and at the last monthly Policy Committee meeting, I did say and I gave data about what is being done even in developed economy, about what need to be done to shore up their economy and take them out of recession.
“Nigeria is unfortunately in a very bad situation, I’m not going to pretend about it in the sense that we are facing problem about productivity output, which is GDP. Luckily, we managed to just come out of it… And we are working very hard to see how we can not only have our head above other, at least get our waist above water. That is what we are facing right now.
“Of course, we are also confronted by the issue of inflation, prices and the rest of them. And so, for us to begin to see that some people playing some games trying to come up with overheating this polity talking about printing of money, I think it’s very unfortunate, totally inappropriate, and I would like to advise that this should stop, we should all work for the growth of our country and not playing politics, I am not a politician and I keep saying so, I am a banker and I should be left to do my work.”
