Why we are supporting FG, states – CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday explained why it had been providing budget support to the government, and not printing and distributing naira as claimed.

Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo State, claimed that N60 billion was printed in March to support allocation to states.

Obaseki, in a tweet via his official Twitter handle @GovernorObaseki titled “Our advice is that we stop playing the ostrich,” noted that he was not joining issues with the Federal Ministry of Finance but was only offering useful advice for the benefit of Nigeria.

Responding to the allegation, Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, said on Thursday that “printing of money is about lending money.”

In 2015, 19 of the 36 states of the federation benefitted from the CBN’s workers’ salary bailout package to the tune of N338 billion, which allowed a 20-year repayment tenor for all the states, except Ogun, which opted for a 10-year tenor.

The beneficiary states include Kwara, Zamfara, Osun, Niger, Bauchi, Gombe, Abia, Adamawa, Ondo, and Kebbi, the CBN stated then.

Others include Ekiti, Imo, Ebonyi, Ogun, Plateau, Nassarawa, Sokoto, Edo and Oyo.

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“We did provide budget support facility for all the states of this country. That loan remains unpaid till now, and we are going to insists on the states paying back that money going forward, since they are accusing us of giving them loan, effective, that is what they are saying,” Emefiele said.

According to the CBN governor, most countries in the world today are confronted with, not only health challenge coming from COVID-19, but also economic crisis.

“I keep saying this, it will be irresponsible for the CBN or any central bank or any FED to stand idle and refuse to support its government at this time. And what is being done is being done in any clan,” he said.

“Nigeria is unfortunately in a very bad situation. I am not going to pretend about it in the sense that we are facing problem about productivity output, which is the GDP. Luckily, we managed to come out of it on hair’s breadth and we are working very hard to see how we can not only have our head above water but get our waist above water that is what we are focusing on now,” he said.

The CBN governor noted further that country was also being confronted with issues of inflation and prices. “For us to begin to see that some people are playing game, trying to overheat the polity, talking about printing of money, I think is very unfortunate and totally inappropriate. 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 keep saying so. I am a banker and I should be left to do my work.”

Nigeria’s states shared about N9.009 trillion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) between 2015 and 2019, data obtained from the CBN’s website showed.

The CBN governor’s claim follows Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, on Wednesday, saying it was untrue that the Federal Government printed N60 billion in March to support federal allocations to states.