For nearly eight years running, the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has held saddle at the apex bank. ENE OSHABA in this report examines the man’s exploits and future mandates.
Tuesday, June 3 2014 would go down in the history of Nigeria.
On this day, while Nigerians were going about their business, a decision was made that continues to have a lasting impact on their lives as Godwin Emefiele was appointed as the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN).
According to Bashir Mohammed, spokesperson for Emefiele Mobilisation Team, by that mandate, the CBN governor is required to oversee the overall control and administration of the monetary and financial sector policies of the federal government.
In specific terms, the CBN boss is charged with superintending the CBN by ensuring monetary and price stability, issuing legal tender currency, maintaining stable external reserves, promoting a sound financial system, acting as banker to both the government and other banks, ensuring high standards of banking practice and providing economic & financial advice to the federal government.
As manager of fiscal policies
According to Mohammed, Emefiele, on his assumption of duty later disclosed that the country’s rising unemployment and escalating food imports prompted the CBN under his leadership to shift from concentrating only on price, monetary, and financial system stability to act as a financial and developmental catalyst in specific sectors of the economy particularly agriculture. This is with a view to creating jobs on a mass scale, improve local food production and conserve scarce foreign reserves.
”In support of the federal government’s efforts to strengthen the agric sector, diversify Nigeria’s economy and wean it off oil dependence, CBN under Emefiele’s stewardship worked tirelessly to develop policies and programmes that would reposition the nation’s agric sector as a major contributor to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), driver of economic diversification and importantly, a generator of socio-economic development.
”The result of this programme development was the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). By design, the ABP was created to reduce food imports, safeguard foreign reserves, generate employment, achieve food self-sufficiency and increase commercial lending to agriculture,” he noted.
Explaining further, he said the ABP was particularly formulated to create economic linkages between reputable companies (anchors) involved in the production and processing of key agricultural commodities and smallholder farmers partly through the provision of loans to these farmers.
He pointed out that since the ABP’s flag-off during the 2015 dry season farming in Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi state, Emefiele has etched his name in the minds and hearts of millions of Nigerians, especially rural smallholder farmers who had hitherto felt a sense of neglect by the federal government.
”Through the ABP, Emefiele has reaffirmed the belief of Nigeria’s less-privileged and returned their self-esteem and self-worth by making them critical stakeholders in the socio-economic ecosystem in the country.
”As a show of his commitment towards appreciating and alleviating the plight of Nigerians across the country, especially those in rural areas, Emefiele has travelled to so many states including Taraba, Bayelsa, Kano, Zamfara, Plateau, Cross River, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Lagos, Katsina, Niger, Ogun, Kogi and more.
He maintained that through CBN’s ABP, Nigeria recently proclaimed its food self-sufficiency laurels by unveiling the world’s largest rice pyramids, comprising one million 100kg bags of rice in Abuja, beginning with 75,000 farmers across 26 state with the ABP successfully taking a foothold in all states of the federation and the FCT.
Support for agriculture
He further noted that through the commitment and resilience of Emefiele and the CBN, the number of Nigeria’s rice farmers alone has multiplied 13-fold in the space of six years from 1.5 million to over 20 million, recalling that prior to the launch of the ABP, the CBN spent $2.9 billion annually on rice import alone in the seven years since ABP’s launch.
”However, the CBN had disbursed over $2 billion to over 4.5 million smallholder farmers cultivating rice, maize, cassava, cocoa, sorghum, millet, cotton, groundnut, oil palm, sugarcane, tree crops, legumes, vegetables and more.
”This support in terms of finance and training has resulted in an increase in knowledge of good agronomy practices and by extension an increase in farmers’ productivity. Prior to 2015, rice producers averaged production levels of 1.5 metric tonnes/hectare. Courtesy of the Emefiele-led CBN, local rice production has now leapt to five metric tonnes/hectare.
”As a result, the number of large-scale integrated rice mills has increased from less than 10 in 2015 to nearly 100,400 medium-sized mills and over 200,000 small scale mills across the country, providing millions of direct and indirect jobs.
One of such rice mills was inaugurated in Kano dtate recently by Emefiele. The N15 billion ultra-modern facility has the capacity to process 420 metric tonnes of paddy daily.
Such facilities and other ones along the Agricultural Value Chain that have been established through the ABP have brought about significant indirect impacts on rural communities.
”Particularly, communities in Nigeria’s hinterlands have experienced the mass empowerment of farmers, reversing the migration of able-bodied youths from rural to urban areas. Socio-economically, such trends will reduce cultural changes, juvenile delinquency, the decline in traditional values and counter the growth of slums all brought about by rural-urban migration.
”Apart from impacting the upstream activities of the agriculture sector, the ABP has impacted other segments of the Agricultural Value Chain including midstream, upstream and pre-upstream activities.
Continuing, he said as a result of the agricultural revolution championed by Emefiele’s ABP, Fertiliser importation is now a thing of the past as Nigeria now boasts of over 50 state-of-the-art fertiliser blending plants, up from a mere three run-down blending plants pre-ABP. He stated that the herbicides sub-sector is not left out as it has also witnessed tremendous growth, with mega indigenous herbicide manufacturing companies springing up all over the country.
‘Prior to joining the CBN, Emefiele had recorded over 26 years of experience in Commercial Banking, culminating in his appointment as group managing director and chief executive officer of Zenith Bank Plc.
”Under Emefiele’s leadership, Zenith Bank strengthened its position as a leading financial institution in Africa, winning recognition and endorsement at home and abroad for giant strides in key performance areas like corporate governance, service delivery and deployment of cutting-edge ICT.
”In his present tenure as CBN governor, Emefiele has overseen effective monetary and fiscal policy coordination and the establishment of various initiatives that are ensuring financial inclusion, promoting economic diversification, generating wealth and creating jobs.
”It therefore does not come as a surprise that since assuming office, Emefiele has become a symbol of national hope and prosperity across all six geopolitical zones of the country. Through smart, unbiased, people-focused interventions and policies, he has lifted millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
”It is based on these accomplishments and leadership qualities that groups such as the Emefiele Mobilisation Team and many Nigerians across the length and breadth of the country are increasingly putting forward their case for a higher assignment for Emefiele through which he can replicate his great works on a broader, national scale where his services are equally required.
