The Federal Government insisted, Tuesday that Nigeria was not broke even as it said the country was cash trapped.
Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Jonah Otunla and the Director-General of Budget Office, Mr. Bright Okogwu, stated this while answering questions from members of the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance.
Both explained that unlike certain countries with similar experience which had started borrowing monies to pay salaries of their workers, Nigeria was not yet doing that.
Mr Okogwu said the country was still financially buoyant and had been meeting all its obligations, adding that the economy of the country was normal except what he described as “inadequate funds in circulation.”
He stressed that there was no cause for alarm, as according to him, the government was on top of the situation.
The government representatives who were at the meeting held to consider the 2012-2014 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, earlier forwarded to the National Assembly by President Jonathan preparatory to the 2014 budget presentation in November, insisted that Nigeria was financially firmed.
“Nigeria is not broke but it is currently having cash flow problems”, Otunla responded to question thrown at him by Senator Ahmed Makarfi.
On his part, Okogwu said though, the nation currently experiences cash flow problems from time to time; it does not suggest that it is broke.
“Nigeria is not broke. We may have cash flow problem. But countries like Greek and Spain are broke. They are now approaching their international neighbours for bail out but Nigeria has not done that and we are nowhere near that situation at all”, he assured.
Mrs Maria Alade, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, who represented CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at the event was however evasive in her reaction to a similar question.
She said:“As Bankers of the Federal Government, it is not our duty to tell the Nation whether she is broke or not but we can tell her the amount she has in accounts at anytime but since the AGF and the DG, Budget have clearly declared that Nigeria is not broke, we in CBN also believe so”, she said