Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele has asked public and private sector operators to look inwards in developing the economy.
He spoke yesterday while delivering the third in the University of Benin’s series of Eminent Persons’ Lecture, held in Benin.
He charged Nigerians to think of what they could do to improve the fortunes of the Nigerian economy, rather than what they could benefit from the economy.
In his lecture titled: Beyond the Global Financial Crisis: Monetary Policy under Global Uncertainty, Emefiele noted that there was much potential within the Nigerian economy to make it as developed as other countries, which were its peers at independence but had gone ahead to become more developed.
The CBN Governor, who noted that the lecture was part of the bank’s efforts at promoting research and collaboration with Universities, towards developing policies and programmes that will enhance the economic well-being of all Nigerians, highlighted how the crisis had helped to reshape monetary policy tools used by Central Banks to address dips in their economies.
Giving an overview of how central banks across different economic blocs responded to the global financial crisis, he noted that while the impact of the global financial crisis had little effect on the Nigerian economy, the drop-in commodity prices between 2014 – 2016, brought to the fore the limitation of conventional monetary policy tools.
According to him, “the 60 per cent drop in crude oil prices between 2014 – 2016 along with normalization of Monetary Policy by the United States Federal Reserve Bank in 2014, imposed severe constraints on the Nigerian economy, given our reliance on crude oil for over 90 percent of our export earnings and 60 percent of government revenue.”
He explained that the CBN and the fiscal authorities, in an effort to contain the crisis, decided to deploy both conventional and unconventional tools in a bid to support continued growth of the economy. This is even as he noted that a simple focus on the Monetary Policy Rate would not have been sufficient to get the Nigerian economy out of the recession.
The CBN boss also assured entrepreneurs set to commence operations at the Edo Production Centre, of the availability of favourable financing options through the apex bank’s NIRSAL National Microfinance Bank, to complement other incentives for industrial production at the facility.
He spoke during a visit to the Centre along Sapele Road-axis of Benin City, Edo State, lauded Governor Godwin Obaseki, for his vision in setting up the facility.
The Hub is a cluster for Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in the state, where they will enjoy 24-hour electricity supply, share resources and other business support services aimed at boosting productivity. The cluster is to be set up in the three Senatorial Districts of the state.