By Dayo Omoogun
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele has hinted at the Bank’s priorities for the year 2020.
In a keynote address titled “Strong, Sustainable growth for the Nigerian Economy” at the Chartered Institute of of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) ‘s 54th annual dinner the Governor gave highlights of the agenda as : establishment of Bankers Charitable Endowment Fund, maintenance of tight monetary policy,
support for improved domestic production and diversification of the economy.
The Endowment Fund will fund a major charitable initiative in the country every year beginning from 2020. This move which will boost the apex bank’s social responsibility credentials is expected to provoke such people-centred projects across industries and sectors which will improve the welfare of the average Nigerian.
Emefiele who admitted that the growth of the economy,though positive, had remained slow within the year 2019 due to ” some structural constraints” disclosed the bank’s plans to maintain its current tight monetary policy in order to support the government’s economic recovery plan and facilitate an improved Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Though we will act to appropriately adjust the policy rate in line with unfolding conditions and outlooks, the CBN will continue to ensure that the policy interest rate is delicately set to balance the objectives of price stability with output stabilization,” he explained.
He scored the performance of bank’s intervention measures high; saying they had contributed greatly to the stability of the naira, reduced inflation, the positive GDP growth, improved external reserves as well as reduction in nonperforming bank loans.
According to him, industry-wide Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) had increased from 10.2 percent in December 2017 to 15.5 percent in September 2019. He added that the percentage of non-performing loans in the banking sector had reduced by about 50% from a high of 14.7 percent in January 2017 to under 7 percent as at October 2019.
As part of efforts to boost local production the Bank will also improve access to credit for farmers and SMES by deepening its intervention efforts through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme and the Real Sector Support Funds, amongst others. Similarly, he said the Bank, in pushing to improve access to finance and credit, would protect them from unfair banking and lending practices by maintaining oversight on the banks and other financial institutions.
He urged Nigerians to tame their inordinate propensity to consume foreign goods as it is detrimental to our economic well-being.
“We must also consume what we produce and produce what we consume. We must discourage the propensity to import what can be produced in Nigeria. This is because if we do not reduce import, the same imports will kill us knowing full well that such activities do not aid our efforts to create jobs and support the growth of our local industries.
“If we choose to follow the trend of supporting imports of goods that can be produced in Nigeria, we will lose jobs, our industries will die and insecurity and other social vices in our land will continue to increase. We must choose this alternative path of improving domestic production, which will support growth of our local economy,” he charged.
Concerning diversification of the economy, Mr. Emefiele said the CBN, is working with the Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM), to improve access to the N500bn facility designed to support the growth of Nigeria’s non-oil exports