Youth Party condemns CBN’s funding of bloated govt, urges urgent steps to reset economy

The Youth Party has frowned at what it says is the continuous waste of public resources on irrelevant overheads and consumption by the federal government.

The Party, in a statement by its National Chairman, Tomiwa Aladekomo expressed great displeasure at the country’s sustenance of government’s non-productive recurrent expenditure, unlike other countries of the world that adopt quantitative easing to stimulate the economy.

It noted that while it wasn’t uncommon for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to print money, the issue lies with what that money is used to fund, adding, “In our case, unfortunately, it is unnecessary overheads and consumption.”

The statement followed the warning by the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki on April 8 that the country was facing a serious economic problem as the CBN printed N60bn, which was added to what was shared at the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee by three levels of government in March.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, however explained the practice of printing money for the government to borrow, noting that it is a practice in other economies of the world.

Read also: Youth Party kicks over inflation rate, says APC, Buhari have failed Nigerians

The Party chair while calling for urgent steps to reset and diversify the economy, said it was inappropriate of the country to print money with the current state of inflation, devaluation and interest rate without it being targeted at boosting productivity.

The Party noted: “However, we are worried that rather than using quantitative easing as it is the case with other countries of the world to spur productivity and drive economic growth, ours is geared at sustaining government’s non-productive recurrent expenditure, funding overheads, debts and a bloated government.”

“For instance, the federal government last year budgeted N128, billion for the National Assembly alone, a figure that was more that what was budgeted for UBEC (N70 billion) and basic health care (N35 billion) combined.

“This is a serious threat to the country’s macroeconomic stability as it will further weaken the exchange rate and push the country into hyper-inflation.”

Aladekomo further advised: “We must begin to look into various sectors of the economy, particularly the growth enhancing areas of our economy. We must begin to develop the right strategies to reset and grow the nation’s economy.

“The Federal Government can take a cue from our ‘Bold Revenue Plan’ which advises, amongst other things, the cutting down of government’s expenditure, reduction of the bloated cost of governance and increase in revenue through blocking tax loopholes. The government must pay urgent attention to production enhancing activities that can create jobs and grow the economy.”

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