The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said the Tinubu-led Federal Government has not borrowed money from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Edun made this disclosure on Thursday while fielding questions from newsmen after a meeting with investors at the ongoing Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC, United States.
He said the Federal Government would pin down Ways and Means to deal with the problem of too much liquidity in the system, adding that the fiscal and monetary authorities were complementing each other to bring down inflation.
According to him, “We will pin down Ways and Means to alleviate the pressure of the excess money in the system.
“By doing so the two authorities are working hand in hand to bring down inflation and pressure on price stability and stabilizing the exchange rate, with the target of bringing down interest rates so that investors can borrow at a more affordable rate and getting the economy going in the right direction again.
“We need to borrow less and focus more on domestic resource mobilization. We want long-term resources to avoid repayment and refinancing pressures.”
The Minister added that the nation’s tax/GDP was too low, even lower than the African region average and that as such, reforms were underway to streamline the number of taxes, deploy technology and implement policies that would double tax revenue in the next three years
“At 10 percent to GDP, what should I say, it would appear as if some people are not paying their taxes,” he added