Ameachi ‘Reveals’ Buhari Orders Printing Of Currency Since 2015

The Transport Minister, Rotimi Ameachi, has been reportedly caught on tape admitting that the federal government has been on a currency printing spree since 2015.

The report, which was published by Peoples gazette, said Amaechi alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari has always ordered the CBN to keep printing money since 2015.

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The minister alleged that party members were sworn to an oath never to publicly admit to Nigerians that the government was on a printing spree of the national currency.

“And most of you didn’t know at the time we took over, most Nigerians don’t even know because we have sworn to an oath not to tell anybody we were printing money,” Amaechi reportedly said.

He added “do you know when a country prints money? When it has no money at all,” he said. “We were just printing money to pay debt.”

President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) had in 2015 promised to revamp the country’s economy.

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But the administration has been heavily criticized over its poor handling of the economy resulting in increased poverty and low per capita income among Nigerians.

Amaechi’s allegations further buttresses recent comments by the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, who revealed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), printed N60 billion naira as bail out to the tiers of government to make up for shortfall in shared federal disbursement for the March, 2021.

In response, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed accused the governor of spreading falsehood, stating that “The issue that was raised by the Edo state governor for me is very, very sad because it is not a fact.”

Similarly, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, dismissed Obaseki’s claim, describing it as “unfortunate and totally inappropriate.”

Addressing the matter while speaking with journalists, Emefiele said: “If you understand the concept of printing of money. The concept printing of money, it’s about lending money.

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“That’s our job – to print. It’s about lending money and so there’s no need putting the controversy about the printing of money as if we are going into the factory printing the naira and start distributing on the streets.”

Also, renowned credit rating institution, Fitch, said the CBN under Buhari has been printing money at an alarming rate, warning that such tactics could engender additional economic woes for the country’s 200 million people.

Prior to Buhari’s assumption of office on May 29, 2015, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed that their administration would inherit $60 billion as foreign and domestic debt from the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The VP had described the state of the Nigerian economy as unfortunate, stating that the nation has to spend 21 percent of its 2015 budget on debt servicing.

“We are concerned that our economy is currently in perhaps its worst moment in history. Local and international debt stands at $60 billion. Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is N953.6 billion, about 21 per cent of our budget,” the vice president had said.

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