The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it is leading the drive towards diversifying the nation’s economy away from oil through its numerous interventions.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said this at the 33rd Seminar organised by the Bank for journalists on Saturday in Lagos.
The conference, which was held simultaneously in Lagos and Abuja, was themed: “Policy Options for Economic Diversification: Thinking Outside the Crude Oil-Box.”
Emefiele said the quest for building a robust economy had remained the major component of the monetary policy, since Nigeria has largely depended on the oil sector for revenue generation over the past four decades.
He, therefore, stressed the need to build a broad-based and well-diversified economy that would guarantee overall macroeconomic stability.
“The quest for building a more sophisticated economy and agricultural, micro, small, and medium enterprises, industrial and manufacturing concerns, has become the major component of our monetary policy.
“Nigeria has largely depended on the oil sector for revenue generation over the past four decades, and the sustained decline in crude oil production has continued to negatively undermine the performance of the economy.
“Thus, there is the urgent need for a conscientious effort to diversify to other non-oil sectors,” Emefiele said.
The quest for building a more sophisticated economy and agricultural, micro, small, and medium enterprises, industrial and manufacturing concerns, has become the major component of our monetary policy.
Sectoral interventions
Emefiele, represented by the Director, Corporate Communication Department, Osita Nwanisobi, said the apex bank had supported non-oil sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education, power and aviation and other allied economic value chains.
He said Nigeria has become a rice exporting country as the CBN’s flagship Anchor Borrowers programme (ABP) has changed the long-standing dependence on imported rice.
He said the CBN had through its Agriculture Credit Scheme, supported commercial farmers in the country in different value chains including oil palm, cotton, and cocoa, among others.
He said the implementation of 44 items prohibited from foreign exchange for import had revealed that the bank’s continued support to the manufacturing sector and MSMEs was yielding great results.
He also said the apex bank’s health sector intervention was beginning to reduce the healthcare tourism, which according to him, was helping to conserve the country’s foreign exchange and the improve well-being of Nigerians.
Similarly, Emefiele said the new 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity, is also beginning to yield quality results.
He also said the RT200 FX initiative designed to take advantage of Nigeria’s large domestic production to other regional markets, is targeted at increasing foreign exchange inflows to the economy and support exchange rate stability.
On digitalisation across all sectors, specifically in entrenching a resilient payments system, Emefiele said the bank had over the years established strategic initiatives and policies in the financial sector.
He named the strategies as: the Payments System Vision 2020 (2007), National Financial Inclusion Strategy (2012 2018), Cash-less Policy (2012), Framework for Regulatory Sandbox Operations (2018 2021) Open Banking Initiative (2021), among others.
The apex bank governor said as a result, the Nigerian payment ecosystem had witnessed tremendous improvements over the years.
He said: “to consolidate its efforts towards engendering a digital economy, the bank deployed the eNaira, Africa’s first Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in preparation for the payment landscape in the future given the potential benefits that will accrue to a digital economy.” (NAN)
