Business

New interest rate best for economy at this point –Emefiele

Published

8 years ago

August 14, 2016

Your jobs are secured, CBN reassures bank workers

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Saturday, defended the decision of the apex bank to increase interest rate, adding that it was the best decision for the Nigerian economy at the moment.

Emefiele also warned that if the country does not fully embrace diversification, it would not be able to generate enough foreign exchange to stabilize the value of the naira.

According to him, the value of the naira has been falling because of the the country’s inability to generate enough foreign exchange due to the falling prices of oil in the international market.

Read also: Three banks fingere in N11.23bn fraud in NPA

The CBN governor stated these when he spoke with journalists during an event organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, in Abuja, insisting that the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, took the best decision in view of the current economic challenges.

It would be recalled that the CBN had come under serious criticism over the decision to increase the Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, which is the interest rate charged by it on loans granted commercial banks.

Represented at the event by the Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Mrs. Sarah Alade, the CBN governor said once the objective of price stability was achieved, the economy would begin to experience growth.

He said: “At this moment, what we are doing is what is best for the economy. The concern even among the youth is the slide in the value of the naira and I told them that we also need to diversify the economy so that we could have more exports; we are also supporting the efforts of the government on this. Once we are able to achieve this, we would have the kind of interest rate that we want.

“But at this particular time, to be able to get through the situation, we would have to take the decisions. And the Monetary Policy Committee considers all these factors before we take decisions.”

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews…

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