BEVERLY HILLS, April 14, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has denied that it printed N60 billion to augment the March allocation to the three tiers of administration.
THEWILL reported that the Edo State Governor had, while speaking at the Edo Transition Committee Stakeholders’ Engagement, claimed the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), to be able to meet the revenue sharing to states for the month of March, had to print about N60 billion more cash.
He had, during the same event, alleged that the Federal Government had been borrowing without a sustainable plan to sort out the nation’s debt load.
Reacting to the report on Wednesday, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, described the allegation by Obaseki as untrue and sad.
It reproved Obaseki for saying it printed money to share among federating units, describing the claim as falsehood.
The Federal Government also described the Governor’s alarm over the nation’s borrowing as needless, saying Nigeria’s debt profile is still within sustainable limits.
She said: “The issue that has been raised by the Edo State Governor, for me, is very sad because it is not a fact. What we distribute at FAAC revenue that is generated and in fact distribution revenue is public information, we publish it.
“So it’s revenue generated by the FIRS, the Customs and the NNPC, that we distribute at FAAC. So it is not true to say we printed money to distribute at FAAC, it is not true.”
Speaking to the issue of borrowing without a repayment plan, Ahmed said the nation’s debt profile remained within manageable realms, saying the plan for the country is basically to improve its revenue generation to take care of both debt servicing and running of government.
Her words: “On the issue of the borrowing, the Nigerian debt is still within sustainable limits. What we need to do, as I have said several times, is to improve our revenue to enhance our capacity to service, not only our debt obligations, but to service the needs of the running government on a day to day basis.
“So our debt, currently at about 23% to GDP, is at a very sustainable level. You can look at all the reports that you see from multilateral institutions, those facts are stated,” she said.
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