This question had really bothered me,anyone with economics knowledge can explain.
There is hunger in the land.to solve this problem why can't CBN print at least enough notes and pay everyone without money in his account or someone who isn't working minimum of one million naira.
aren't bank note paper why can't it be done like this?

Here's the answer: When you have plenty of cash in the economy pursuing few goods, it causes inflation. I will use an analogy to break down what inflation means

What that means is that the tuber of yam you used to buy for N500 may be sold 5k because a lot of people have money to throw away.

The implication is that such economy isn't sustainable and it reduces the value of your currency. One of the unique characteristics of money is that it must be SCARCE (Limited supply).

If money isn't scarce, you will see plenty of money chasing few goods. This, no doubt, is a metaphor for disaster.

As an economist,
Money is just a means to a goal. Which helps to distribute resources...

The main goal here is goods and services...

Why government (you and i) can't just increase the level of output (goods and services -stable power supply, rice, beans, garri, fish, tomatoes, yams etc and make them flood the markets, street to the point we have excess for export...

This is what China is doing. Flooding the world with cheap products even when their Renminbi is one of the undervalued currency among advanced nation... They keep it low but on the other way round increase their overall output.

This should be your concern... Leave the poor naira alone.

What determines A healthy economy is not the unit of measurement (amount of naira) you have but the amount of goods and services (GDP) the citizens of that country can produce

Bro if CBN should print more notes that will lead to inflation thereby leading us to extreme poverty

fastseo:
As an economist,
Money is just a means to a goal. Which helps to distribute resources...

The main goal here is goods and services...

Why government (you and i) can't just increase the level of output (goods and services -stable power supply, rice, beans, garri, fish, tomatoes, yams etc and make them flood the markets, street to the point we have excess for export...

This is what China is doing. Flooding the world with cheap products even when their yarn is one of the undervalued currency among advanced nation... They keep it low but on the other way round increase their overall output.

What determines A healthy economy is not the unit of measurement (amount of naira) you have but the amount of goods and services (GDP) the citizens of that country can produce

Simple and concise response. Brilliant!

This is Zimbabwe where president Mugabe kept making the central bank to print more and more money. Surely, you don't want this to happen in Nigeria. In some instances, the wheelbarrow could be more valuable than the "worthless" paper notes it's carrying.

SoNature:
Here's the answer: When you have plenty of cash in the economy pursuing few goods, it causes inflation. I will use an analogy to break down what inflation means

What that means is that the tuber of yam you used to buy for N500 may be sold 5k because a lot of people have money to throw away.

The implication is that such economy isn't sustainable and it reduces the value of your currency. One of the unique characteristics of money is that it must be SCARCE (Limited supply).

If money isn't scarce, you will see plenty of money chasing few goods. This, no doubt, is a metaphor for disaster.

I mean it not that the money will just be printed anyhow even if it's once and given at least 1million naira to everybody as a loan that's what I meant

donvat1:
Bro if CBN should print more notes that will lead to inflation thereby leading us to extreme poverty

If CBN prints more money and give to all unemployed people maybe 1M each as a loan to pay back how will it lead to inflation na,just check it out

Superjazz:
This question had really bothered me,anyone with economics knowledge can explain.
There is hunger in the land.to solve this problem why can't CBN print at least enough notes and pay everyone without money in his account or someone who isn't working minimum of one million naira.
aren't bank note paper why can't it be done like this?

It will simply lead to inflation. It will not lead to an increase in the quantity of goods.

Presently, rich countries practice quantitative easing where the government prints money and uses it to buy up public debt. It does this to reflate the economy.

Though this may increase money supply, it does not turn inflationary because before it is implemented, then government is assured that inflationary pressure is either very low or the economy faces deflation. Therefore if money is pumped in, even if inflation will rise, it will be minuscule. Most often, it leads to rise in asset prices which is considered benign.

I think CBN should print more money to finance basic infrastructures like consistent power supply, upgrade our refineries, good transport systems, etc.
This will not lead to inflation if managed properly.
We have a lot to do in this country

paxnka:
I think CBN should print more money to finance basic infrastructures like consistent power supply, upgrade our refineries, good transport systems, etc.
This will not lead to inflation if managed properly.
We have a lot to do in this country

Abi, how can we just be punishing ourself, controlled printing of money won't lead to inflation

paxnka:
I think CBN should print more money to finance basic infrastructures like consistent power supply, upgrade our refineries, good transport systems, etc.
This will not lead to inflation if managed properly.
We have a lot to do in this country

you forget that we import a lot of things with the dollar. Every infrastructure needs the dollar. So the guys who said it would lead to inflation are very much right. Let naira be scarce, it is better for us. Thats why people are sharing food instead of money. lalalastica.

You know nothing Jon Snow!

People shout when they don't have enough, when they have excess they become fools.

One of the things we were all taught about money in secondary school is; it must be scarce. Remove scarcity from money and it'll lose it's value.

Print excess naira notes and our economy will crumble. Inflation will walk in majestically.

A sachet of water will sell for N500.

Even thieves will stop stealing money, they'll rather steal what they'll buy with the money.

SoNature:
Here's the answer: When you have plenty of cash in the economy pursuing few goods, it causes inflation. I will use an analogy to break down what inflation means

What that means is that the tuber of yam you used to buy for N500 may be sold 5k because a lot of people have money to throw away.

The implication is that such economy isn't sustainable and it reduces the value of your currency. One of the unique characteristics of money is that it must be SCARCE (Limited supply).

If money isn't scarce, you will see plenty of money chasing few goods. This, no doubt, is a metaphor for disaster.

Even America and Europe are printing at the moment. They did it during the last recession and will do it again but they will tell you not to print

Karleb:


You know nothing Jon Snow!

People shout when they don't have enough, when they have excess they become fools.

One of the things we were all taught about money in secondary school is; it must be scarce. Remove scarcity from money and it'll lose it's value.

Print excess naira notes and our economy will crumble. Inflation will walk in majestically.

A sachet of water will sell for N500.

Even thieves will stop stealing money, they'll rather steal what they'll buy with the money.

This is brilliant!!!

The value of money in an economy is synonymous with the activities the economy could generate. Printing more money beyond the economic capacity leads to recklessness.

In short, the only reason govt cannot afford to print more money is simply because of human nature. Man cannot control himself when he sees 'free" money.

ehinmowo:
The value of money in an economy is synonymous with the activities the economy could generate. Printing more money beyond the economic capacity leads to recklessness.

In short, the only reason govt cannot afford to print more money is simply because of human nature. Man cannot control himself when he sees 'free" money.

What's wrong in printing money to finance some key government agencies and services I didn't say print 100million for everybody I said control printing e.g taking 100 thousand people monthly out of poverty by giving them 500k to 1million naira loans to start a bussiness/skill and they pay back.now tell me how it's leads to inflation.

Karleb:


You know nothing Jon Snow!

People shout when they don't have enough, when they have excess they become fools.

One of the things we were all taught about money in secondary school is; it must be scarce. Remove scarcity from money and it'll lose it's value.

Print excess naira notes and our economy will crumble. Inflation will walk in majestically.

A sachet of water will sell for N500.

Even thieves will stop stealing money, they'll rather steal what they'll buy with the money.

Now how will control printing crumble the economy or lead to inflation. I didn't say wide printing like the way Zimbabwe did.i mean secret tactical printing to get few thousands out of poverty by giving them the money as loans and printing to finance some key government agencies.

Karleb:


You know nothing Jon Snow!

People shout when they don't have enough, when they have excess they become fools.

One of the things we were all taught about money in secondary school is; it must be scarce. Remove scarcity from money and it'll lose it's value.

Print excess naira notes and our economy will crumble. Inflation will walk in majestically.

A sachet of water will sell for N500.

Even thieves will stop stealing money, they'll rather steal what they'll buy with the money.

Your head dey there!

People just dey shout up and down "print more money, print more money, print more money", obviously unaware of the dire economic implications of that. SMH.

None of you want to address the guy's argument about controlled printing because he is absolutely right.

Superjazz:

What's wrong in printing money to finance some key government agencies and services I didn't say print 100million for everybody I said control printing e.g taking 100 thousand people monthly out of poverty by giving them 500k to 1million naira loans to start a bussiness/skill and they pay back.now tell me how it's leads to inflation.

I think your idea could work.

Am not an Economist but based on the little knowledge I have, here is my contribution.

There is something called GDP (the worth of the total goods and services a Nations produce in dollars) that's what defines the wealth of a Nation to some extent.

Now if we ask the government to print more Naira so that we can upgrade our infrastructures, the problem here is we don't have enough goods and services to commensurate or absorb the excess Naira already out inflation rate is already in double digit; do we produce trains, rail lines, capable engineers (as at yesterday I still saw a foreigner constructing a road that leads to a village), machines we will use for the construction activities etc? Okay let's say we have currency swapping agreement with some of these countries, if we bargain with them to take naira and give us those things we need, the question is to what extent? because there will be unbalance trade, we will buy more with our naira because we need them more and they will buy our raw material with little of their naira reserve. At the end it's either they opt out of the agreement and we are now back to square one or they ration the amount of naira we can spend per time which will still take us back to the drawing board "valueless Naira"

Second option to print and empower people: this is a good idea to some extent. The truth is we need more USD than Naira, so any endeavor that will encourage that should be encouraged. So if the money is going to be used by the participants to create goods and services that can be consumed locally (to boost our GDP) and also for export to increase our USD earnings to buy the infrastructure we need is a good one.

USA and others are printing money because bulk of their currency is not within their territory. If the rest of the world decides to return USA's USD in their domain today, you will be surprise with the mess you will find them in.

It's better to print money to boost production and export than for palliative measures for now in Nigeria. I hope this help. Cheers.