The Federal Government says it is studying the situation on change of West African Economic and Monetary Union, UEMOA currency, Eco, to be used as ECOWAS single currency.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, made this known in a statement by Yunusa Abdullahi, her Special Adviser, Media and Communication, in Abuja.

Eight West African countries have agreed to change the name of their common currency to Eco, thereby effectively severing the CFA franc’s links to former colonial ruler France.

The countries include Benin republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo with Ahmed saying Nigeria as a country would respond in due course.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has decried that the country’s debt stock was being misrepresented by those he described as scaremongers.

According to Lai Mohammed, Nigeria is not in debt trouble as being circulated as the nation is within a reasonable debt to its Gross Domestic Product ratio.

He explained that the debt was an accumulation of successive government activities, adding that the economic state of the country was good.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has denied the allegation that he is behind the Hate Speech Bill at the National Assembly.

Senator Francis Fadahunsi had made the allegation while speaking with journalists in Oshogbo.

Alhaji Mohammed, while addressing a press conference in Ikeja, Lagos, described the allegation that the senator who is sponsoring the bill is fronting for him, as fake news.