Minister of Finance, Olawale Edun, has said the Central Bank of Nigeria printing N22.7 trillion in the name of Ways and Means loan under the government of former president Muhammadu Buhari and ex-CBN governor Godwin Emefiele caused the rising inflation and economic hardship currently being witnessed in the country.

Speaking during an interface with the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday, March 7, Edun said the Ways and Means loans under the past administration were done aimlessly.

He promised to ensure that Tinubu’s government would audit the CBN printing in the last eight years.

The Minister said; “We talked about inflation, and you helped solve that. Where has it come from? It came from the eight years of printing money not matched by productivity. it’s not like when you earn dollars and free the naira alongside it, although there’s even a better way than that. But that’s still not as bad.

“You distinguished senators have helped. You have given us the mandate to raise N7tn, which we will do by sucking money from the market, using it to pay back the Central Bank and giving the government a balanced book. We are going to audit even the N22.7 trillion printed aimlessly.”