The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has said that the hope of achieving a lower level of interest rate in the country became impossible following the normalisation of monetary policy in the US and over 60 per cent drop in crude oil prices in the last five years.
Emefiele who stated this in Lagos at roundtable session on developing roadmap for greater growth and job creation in Nigeria said the consequences of these
unfortunate occurrences was a heightened inflationary pressure on the economy and Monetary policy had no option but to embark on a regime of tightening so as to rein
inflation.
He said the apex bank sustained forex stability by deploying measures aimed at supporting improved productivity of the Nigerian economy, by restricting access to foreign exchange on 43 items that could be produced in the country and also strengthened our intervention programmes which helped in restarting the flow of credit to critical sectors of the economy.
He said despite the CBN intervention programmes “our task at building a stronger economy is far from complete; with the pace of Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth remaining very fragile and badly lagging behind population growth rate of 2.7 percent,” insisting that the country is yet to see a substantial increase in credit to the private sector by our financial institutions.
“Our domestic industries particularly high employment generating sectors like textile and garment sectors have to deal with rampant smuggling and dumping
of materials through our borders.”
” These Challenges no doubt call for action by the Monetary and fiscal policies through the implementation of policies; the spirit and letter of which must be respected by all,” he added.
He said the rising volatility experienced today in the crude oil market occasioned by the rapid increase in the supply of shale oil by the United States, and which has seen
its production rise from 9 million barrels per day in 2017 to over 12 million barrels per daytoday, portends great risk to Nigeria’s growth
trajectory if we do not take actions that would wean us from excessive reliance on crude earnings for survival.
