Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, expressed concern over the rapid depreciation of the naira, attributing it to the excessive printing of money by the Federal Government.
In an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, the governor addressed the financial challenges facing the country, stating, “I believe that the major problem we have is financial discipline. We are dealing with an economy where we printed so much money, at the last count, we will be nearing N30 trillion.”
Otti highlighted the consequences of the approach, explaining, “So what happens with ways and means is that the quantum of goods that you have available in an economy does not increase with the quantity of money that you print.”
During the interview, the governor emphasized the need for a fundamental shift from consumption to production to facilitate economic recovery. He criticized the heavy reliance on imports in Africa’s largest economy, stressing the strain it imposes on the foreign market.
“The issue of production versus consumption, if the economy must recover, we must move to production. That does not necessarily mean we will reduce consumption. What it means is that we will be consuming what we produce, to the extent that we are importing virtually everything. You keep piling pressure on the foreign exchange market,” he asserted.
