ECONOMY: The road ahead is rough, really rough, Emefiele tells Senate

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has painted a gloomy picture for the Nigerian economy under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, saying the road head is rough, really rough.

Emefiele said this on Wednesday when he appeared before the Senate for his screening for a second term as the head of the nation’s apex bank, urging Nigerians to pray for the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The CBN Governor was grilled by members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions on issues affecting the economy.

Responding to some comments by members of the panel, the CBN boss said there were Nigerians bent on sabotaging the economy by creating loopholes in government policies.

He said: “I thank you for praying for me because we need it. I say this because the road ahead is still rough and very tough. But I want to appeal to all Nigerians that a time comes in the history of a country where you have to learn to respect the policies and laws of a country.

“Part of the problem that we have seen in Nigeria is a lack of respect for the policies of this country. Nigeria is very good at putting in place policies that are sound and workable. But implementation has always been almost zero. And it is arising because we see sabotage activities; we see people, when policies are made, what they think about is ‘how do we circumvent this policy?’

“The Central Bank of Nigeria, if given this mandate, will push very hard to ensure that those who seek to undermine the policies of Nigeria without respecting the laws of this country will be brought to book under any circumstances. And that is why I said, please pray for us because the road ahead is still rough.”

Emefiele equally said he is concerned about the rising population of the country and the lack of commensurate economic prosperity.

“We just came back from the IMF/World Bank programme in April. And in the World Bank’s/IMF’s World Economic Outlook, Nigeria is positioned as a country whose population will grow and rise to over 425 million people by 2050. That will present Nigeria as a country with the third largest population in the world after China and India, and indeed surpassing the United States in population.

“I worry and I do think that we all should worry that a lot of work needs to be done to make sure that we are able to put in place policies that will make life good for 425 million people when we are the third largest population in the world. So, we from the CBN –from the monetary policy side – have come to the realisation that using the instrumentality of the Anchor Borrowers Programme where access  to credit is being provided to  the  masses all over the country, that it will be a way to generate employment and boost economic activity amongst our rural population.

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“As we do this, we make finance available at low interest rate and we make access to credit easy for our people. And in doing this, we will be able to create jobs for them and improve the livelihood of our people. That is a sole mandate that we have and I am very optimistic that this can be achieved. So, from our side in the monetary policy, we will do everything possible to ensure that with the mandate that is bestowed on us, we will pull this country forward”, he said.

According to Emefiele, the CBN is looking beyond the Anchors Borrowers Programme to those targeted at wholesale growth of the agricultural sector.

He said, “Aside from rice and other small good crop markets, we have started looking at palm oil, because we believe that this country has a lot of potential in palm oil. If you think about what this country was in the 50s and 60s, Nigeria being a country at that time that controlled 40 per cent market share in palm oil industry, exporting its palm oil to different parts of the world. But because we found crude oil, we receded and abandoned it.”

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