Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, Wednesday expressed concern over high rate of unemployment and warned that it may slide the country back to recession if not urgently addressed.
Emefiele said Nigeria luckily exited recession which according to him, “has seen recession pending downward to about 18.72 percent in 2017 to about 11. 37 percent today”.
“We have seen reserve moving up. But unfortunately, we still have issues and those issues bothers around unemployment rate and those issues bother around how do we prepare our country,” he stated.
The CBN boss said this while delivering a lecture titled “Beyond the Global Financial Crisis: Monetary Policy Under Global Uncertainty” at the University of Benin 3rd lecture series.
He however said that the country has made progress in the year under review, noting that more efforts must be made to reduce the country’s unemployment rate.
“Whether you like it or not, there is global uncertainty that will unfortunately most certainly lead to another crisis.
“The question could be, how are we as Nigerians, particularly our leaders interms of Monetary and Fiscal Policy Authority, how are we preparing our country for the next set of crisis?
Emefiele however said the introduction of Investors and Exporters window has helped in shoring up the country’s external reserves and stabilized the nation’s economy.
On his part, Vice Chancellor, University of Benin, Prof. Fraday Orumwense said: “as the world becomes increasingly global, new ways are explored.”
“And therefore, the lecture series serves as a means to connect and to continue to rub minds together,” Orumwense said.
