By Omowumi Odesomi
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele has reiterated his commitment to ensuring a robust monetary policy and fighting inflation which is now a global problem.
Emefiele said his focus was on Development finance and supporting farmers & manufacturers in self-sufficiency and import substitution drive as well as raising N15 trillion for InfraCo infrastructure financing.
The CBN governor in a series of tweets on his Twitter handle on Monday with hashtag #Nodistractionsplease said he was also targeting building a world-class International Financial Center in Lagos to support the Buhari Administration to finish strong.
This is coming amidst calls for the CBN governor to declare his intention to join the presidential race for the 2023 elections.
In a related development, the CBN governor during a lecture at the 40th anniversary and 26th Convocation of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti in South West Nigeria on Monday said the current focus of monetary policy was macroeconomic stability, which is to build a strong, stable and resilient economy that is self-sustaining and able to weather unanticipated shocks.
Delivering the lecture titled ” The role of central banks in managing economic downturns’, the CBN governor who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Edward Adamu, said the apex bank in conjunction with other financial institutions have granted over N3tn in intervention loans to aid economic recovery and job creation.
Emefiele said, “Specifically, under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, we have disbursed N948bn to 4,478,381 smallholder farmers who cultivated 5.2million hectares of farmland across the country, thereby creating 12.5 million direct and indirect jobs”.
He said the bank has also disbursed N1.452tn to 337 large real sector projects in agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining under the Real Sector Support Facility.
” We were aware that if necessary support was given to households and business, productivity will rise and investment will flow into our economy,” he said.
The Chairman of the occasion and Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Most Revd Felix Ajakaye, advised governments at all levels to come up with practical solutions whose implementation would make more impact on citizens.
He said, “our thoughts and actions must be practical-oriented. We have to go beyond lectures. This is by being practical in dealing with policies that can benefit poor Nigerians”.
The Vice-Chancellor of the Ekiti State University, Professor Edward Olanipekun, said the institution in its 40 years of existence has impacted meaningfully on the state and would continue to contribute its quota despite the numerous challenges.
