STRONG POLICY COORDINATION NEEDED TO AVOID ANOTHER RECESSION – EMEFIELE

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Monday said there was a need for strong policy coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities to sustain the growth momentum following the country’s exit from recession.

The governor stated this at the opening session of a workshop titled, ‘Sustaining economic growth beyond recession exit’.

To sustain the recovery from recession, the governor said there was a need for robust policy coordination between key aspects of economic policy making.

These, according to him, include fiscal, monetary, exchange and trade policies, which must be targeted at protecting farmers to boost agricultural outputs, support local companies and enhance manufacturing and industrial capacities.

The CBN governor said the effective coordination of these policies would assist in diversifying the economy away from oil.

Represented at the event by the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Mr. Edward Adamu, the apex bank boss added that there was a need for policy makers to be vigilant so that the economy would not slide into recession again.

On what must be done to ensure that the country should not fall back into another recession, he said, “The first thing we need to do is to remain vigilant. Those of us who have been entrusted with leadership and policy making responsibilities must neither become complacent nor over-confident.

“We must strive to improve and sustain the same policies that have got us this far. Our import bills may have fallen but out manufacturing and agriculture sectors still have long way to go if we may attain self-sufficiency in those sectors.

“We must not be quick to discard the restrictive measures, which aided our recovery, simply because the metrics have improved.”

Emefiele said the apex bank would continue to fine-tune its policies and strategies based on the evolving developments in the economy.

“We will remain proactive in ensuring that the welfare of Nigerians is optimised at any point in time. The bank will continue to provide access to much needed credit to sectors with the potential to create jobs on a mass scale,” he added.

On the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the governor said the CBN would expand it to other crops other than rice, and states.

He added that the CBN was currently finalising the creation of a N500bn fund to assist manufacturers interested in non-oil exports.