₦airaland Forum

Why do countries borrow money when they can just print them? 🤔

Bankers and Accountants, Please explain 😢

Money is not the paper you hold in your hand.

The bulk of the money around the globe is not in cash. Only 8% of the money is in cash, that means the remaining 92% is not not cash.

So you think Damgotes $23billion is sitting in one bank account somewhere?

Or you think Elon Musk has his billions kept in one bank...

PS: It cost more money to mint money, so minting money is actually not ideal

Oracle411:
Thats not the question. The question is about printing liquid cash not asset. Go to google and check why countries dont just print money anyhow

I stated there in my comment that it actually costs more to print money.
In 2021 Nigeria spent 6billion to print 2.5billiin notes.
I am not responsible for you IQ

Akuruoulo:
and you believed Nigeria of all country is saying the truth?

You lots should stop all these primitive thinking, it's a lame mindset of thinking everything the government says that you don't like is a lie...

Nigeria is not the only country that prints money.
Printing money is expensive everywhere.
As a matter of fact, printing notes is so expensive that many countries can't afford it, countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Ivory Coast etc don't print their own money, it is that expensive, as a matter of fact Nigeria is one of the very few countries in Africa that prints its own money. Countries in Africa that print are just about 10.

So stop all these display of arrogant ignorance and get some knowledge

That would be called Idi-Amin style or Mugabe's Zimbabwe style.

Inflation my brother....


It's basic Economics.


Print more money, prices of things increases due to more money chasing lesser goods. So what happens when the goods become more expensive? Print more money right?


Go and ask late Mugabe how the matter take finish for am, you go carry one wheelbarrow filled with money to go and buy one loaf of bread....


Otilo....

why will any sensible and responsible government will be saving more than 40million dollar in savings and in another country account and there is high employment, hunger, lack health facility, lack of basic necessities

Because money has no value on its own. It's just a representation of your valuable assets.
You will normally hear printing money leads to inflation but why will printing money lead to inflation? I will try to answer it.

Money on its own is just paper or numbers on a computer. The real value lies in what you have that your people and people in other countries want. If everything you as a country have (gold, oil, food, rare earth, entertainment etc) that other countries and your people want is worth 100bn dollars, you can print only 100bn Naira to match it and your Naira will be worth around 1 dollar to 1 Naira. If you decide to print another 100bn without increasing the valuables you already have, you will end up having 200bn Naira notes representing the valuables you have that's worth only 100bn dollars thereby reducing the value of your currency to 2 Naira for 1 dollar and so on. If you decide to print 1trn Naira your Naira will be worth 10 Naira to a dollar. This is obviously just illustration. The real economics is more complex but this is the whole baseline and idea behind it.

Therock5555:
Inflation my brother....


It's basic Economics.


Print more money, prices of things increases due to more money chasing lesser goods. So what happens when the goods become more expensive? Print more money right?


Go and ask late Mugabe how the matter take finish for am, you go carry one wheelbarrow filled with money to go and buy one loaf of bread....


Otilo....

But your god Tinubu advised the failed late Buhari to print more money to curb inflation when the failed Buhari was in power.

Good question....


Please post all threads in the right section, and don't derail threads by posting off topic.

Waiting for the sabi people to come explain this.

Instead of printing money, countries borrow to avoid the risk of severe inflation, maintain economic stability, and preserve the value of their currency. Recklessly printing money floods the economy with more currency without increasing the supply of goods and services, which makes the currency less valuable and drives prices up dramatically.

It goes beyond just minting currency. any country that try that is joking with inflation. Ask Zimbabwe or Mogabe

Money is just a mint printed to represent value. The real money is not physical, just like value.

Do you want to buy a loaf of bread for 50k? Or buy 1bag of pure water for 5k? When a country prints money carelessly there is bound to be hyperinflation, which will erode the value of the piece of paper called money. It can make it worthless just like a 2A exercise book to an SS3 student. Even with the borrowings and not printing carelessly think about what 1k could buy you in 2005 vs 2025, now imagine if Nigeria was printing money carelessly. Gold is valuable not because God throws just I bar of gold from heaven daily, it is valuable because it is scarce as such the demand is higher than the supply not the other way round. E be like you skip your SS1 commerce class oh lol.

Simply put money is value and assets. The level of inflation we have today was cause by APC printing money. A Hugh chunk of those printed money were stack underground. While some of it went into circulation. The naira notes in circulation now so dirty and old. They have stop printing money or what?

Clubs are now selling old notes i was shocked. The new ones are now hard to find Probably holding it for election.

This question again? How many times a year will it make front page? This place really is full of twelve year olds.

Because they don't want to be buying one bread for one million naira.

Because money is more spiritual than physical

Energy

Hahaha, hahaha 🤣 🤣 🤣 very interesting question. Emefile over to you. 😁

Because if countries just keep printing money, it makes the money less special.

Imagine you have 1 shiny sticker. Super cool, everyone wants it. Then suddenly, your mom prints 1,000 of the same sticker. Guess what? Nobody cares about your one shiny sticker anymore, because now everyone has one. Stickers are worthless.

That’s what happens with money: if a country prints too much, the money loses value. This is called inflation, which is basically the economy having a tantrum.

So instead of printing and making their money useless, countries borrow from others. It’s like asking your friend for their toy and promising you’ll give it back later—much safer than flooding the playground with knockoff toys that break instantly.

Children in NL come and learn.
Let bankers and economist enlightened you and stop hating Tinubu....!

This question appears every two months,
It has been simply explained that it's because printing will lead to hyperinflation. The country will go straight in inflation problems where there would no trust in the Currency of such nation

real money is value,goods and services and not the cash or paper. if more cash is printed , what of the value ,goods and services to match it up?
so for money to develop the economy ,it must be backed up by value ,goods and services.

paper cash is like the flesh, value ,goods and services are the skeleton.

Printing money makes money less valuable (inflation).
Imagine everyone suddenly had double the money in their wallets. People would want to buy more stuff, but there wouldn’t be more goods or services right away. So, prices would just go up. That’s inflation. In extreme cases (like in Zimbabwe or Venezuela), money became almost worthless because too much was printed.

exactly my question.. and please no one should come here and shout inflation because we all know what inflation is and how it works. i'm a practicing chartered Accountant and i can tell you for free that Printing money may be costly but it is still better than borrowing .. our Government just prefer to be penny wise pound foolish

Buhari printed money indiscriminately. Now, look where we are. Printing money will wreck the economy. If they print money indiscriminately, you’d need a wheelbarrow load of money to buy a loaf of bread. Inflation will go through the roof.
The only country that can remotely get away with that is the US, only because the dollar is the reserve currency of the world. They can print and ship out to other countries without it having much impact on the US inflation rate

The more scares the money is the more valuable it is. If the money is very where with everyone. No one will work and no goods will be produced or available and u can’t eat the money. That’s why the poor is also as powerful as the rich. Only if they understand.

The short answer is: printing money freely creates inflation, while borrowing can finance spending without immediately destabilizing the currency. Let me break it down clearly:

1. Printing money reduces the value of money
When a government prints more money without a corresponding increase in goods and services, too much money chases too few goods.

This leads to inflation (prices rising), and if overdone, it can cause hyperinflation (money becomes almost worthless).

Example: Zimbabwe in the 2000s printed excessive money, leading to trillion-dollar notes that couldn’t buy bread.

2. Borrowing helps manage inflation
Instead of printing, countries borrow money (by selling bonds, taking loans, etc.).
Borrowing brings in funds without immediately increasing the money supply.
This allows governments to spend on infrastructure, salaries, or development while keeping inflation relatively stable.

3. Borrowing signals creditworthiness
Countries borrow to show they can manage debt responsibly. Lenders (like the IMF, World Bank, or investors buying bonds) expect repayment with interest.

If a country just prints money, it undermines trust in its currency, and international investors may refuse to trade or lend.

4. Borrowing allows foreign currency access
Many imports (like oil, machinery, or technology) must be paid for in strong foreign currencies (USD, Euro).
Printing local currency won’t help abroad, so borrowing in foreign currency provides access to international trade.
5. Borrowing spreads the cost across generations........Major projects like roads, railways, or power plants benefit citizens for decades.

Inflation and productivity
God Bless Federal Republic of Nigeria

Only USA can afford to print money (dollars) and have minimal effect on their economy. Even so, countries can’t just print money because it makes prices go up (inflation). If they keep printing, the currency loses value as there is too much in circulation.