Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, has denied allegations of financial rascality by the governor of Edo state, Godwin Emefiele.
Reacting to the allegation on Thursday, the governor of the apex bank said the bank has been carefully implementing its policies and will not be distracted by unverified claims.
The governor of Edo state had on Monday raised the alarm that federal government printed the sum of N60bn to augment the March allocations shared to the three levels of government.
However, the minister’s position contradicts an earlier position of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, in February 2021, when Fitch raised a similar concern, saying that unrestrained financing of government’s deficits with Ways and Means (W&M) was a source of economic instability.
Then, Emefiele had said the Central Bank would continue to fund the shortfalls “if the government cannot finance all its obligations. It behooves the central bank to offer support as a lender of last resort. It is unfair and very unfortunate that Fitch, which is known to be a first-class company, would hold such views on what we are doing,” Emefiele said.Emefiele’s reaction came after it was disclosed by the Minister of Finance that in 2020 alone, the CBN printed ₦2.86 trillion without matching the funds with proprietary economic activities. This was revealed by Ahmed while presenting the approved 2021 budget.
