Allow CBN to efficiently, effectively perform its mandate – APC urges PDP

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and others critising the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to allow it efficiently and effectively perform its mandate.

Sen. John Akpanudoedehe, the National Secretary of APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), made the call in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

“Whether the CBN prints money or not, is not an issue, the apex bank should be allowed to perform its mandate.

“The CBN has several ways of creating new money,” he said, noting that money supply in the economy was at the appropriate level.

Akpanudoedehe added that the PDP needed to understand how money was created, saying that its utterances concerning CBN operations will create problems for the economy.

He advised the PDP to join hands with the APC to clear the mess it left behind, noting that to destroy is very easy, but to build is a task the APC is committed to.

He said that central banks all over the world printed money during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.

“The Reserve Bank of the U.S printed dollars to bail out companies that were too big to fail, there is nothing wrong in printing money provided it is well managed.

“There is no evidence that the CBN is inefficient in managing the monetary aspect of the Nigerian economy.

“Let us not forget that the CBN is banker to government and has exercised such function efficiently and effectively,” Akpanudoedehe
said.

He added that the development function of the CBN had resulted in various intervention funds in several sectors of the economy.

He said the APC inherited an economy that showed signs of a recession from 2012, stressing that the economy left by the PDP had no forex to run the system.

According to Akpanudoedehe, looting of our commonwealth was unprecedented during the PDP administration even as productivity declined.

He added that the APC government implemented aggressive fiscal and monetary polices which resulted in the country’s economy exiting recession in 2016.

He said but as the economy was back on the path of positive growth trajectory, came the COVID-19 global health pandemic and sharp decline in oil prices.

This, he said, threw the economy into another problem, adding that the quick intervention of the APC government through the Economic Sustainability Plan fast tracked the recovery from crisis.

Akpanudoedehe said this was to the shock and surprise of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other stakeholders.