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The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has denied that the Federal Government printed N60bn to augment March allocation to States as alleged by Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Speaking to State House correspondents, she said: “The issue that has been raised by the Edo State Governor, for me, is very sad because it is not in a fact. What we distribute at FAAC is revenue that is generated and in fact, distribution of 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,” she stressed.
She also described the Governor’s alarm over the nation’s borrowing as needless, saying Nigeria’s debt profile is still within sustainable limits.
“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 running the government on 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.
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.
Very much the same manner your health counterpart, Osagie Ehanire claimed he had virtual interaction with Chinese medical team who came to him manage covid infection in Nigeria but denied knowledge of their whereabouts when the game was up.