Excessive Money Printing Under Buhari Caused Inflation – Wale Edun

During an interaction with the Senate Committee on Finance, Wale Edun, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, pointed to the N22.7tn printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria through Ways and Means overdraft for the Federal Government of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023, under former President Muhammadu Buhari, as a primary cause of the country’s current hyperinflation crisis.

Edun highlighted that the extensive printing of naira during this period, done without corresponding increases in productivity, has led to the high inflation rates currently plaguing Nigeria.

At the Wednesday session, Edun said, “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.”

He added, “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.”