Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has urged Nigerians in the diaspora and other overseas investors to take advantage of the country’s potential.
Despite the country’s economic challenges, Emefiele stated that there are multiple investment prospects with significant returns.
The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has rejected the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) call for Emefiele’s resignation.
However, addressing at the US-Nigeria Investment Summit in New York on the fringes of the present United Nations General Assembly, Emefiele encouraged Nigerians living abroad to start thinking about investing in their homeland.
“What am I doing here?” I’ve come to persuade those of you in the United States that it’s past time for us to start looking back. The possibilities are plentiful. I know what you’re thinking: “How do I get credit?” You may discover that getting credit is difficult at times, but you can always come in and start from scratch because there are so many options.
“What matters is that Nigeria is opening up, and I can tell you that people all over the world are starting to think about what they can do for Nigeria rather than what they can do for themselves. Before we can expect others to help us, we Nigerians must set an example by rolling up our sleeves and doing things for ourselves. During his 36-minute lecture, the CBN informed his audience, “That is the word I have come up with today, that we are determined to do it for ourselves.”
Emefiele noted that the country’s economic managers recently went to the Presidency and encouraged the government to take certain aggressive steps in order to stimulate economic growth in the country.
He mentioned the Nigeria Commodity Exchange’s current repositioning, the newly founded Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCo), and the planned Nigerian International Financial Centre as some of the projects (NIFC).
“We discovered that the primary challenge we face in the agriculture sector is the transfer of goods from farm to market,” he explained. It’s a transportation and logistical issue. We received presidential authority to reposition the Nigeria Commodity Exchange, which is critical in the transfer of goods from farm to market. The formation of the Infraco is another significant step. You are all aware that Nigeria’s infrastructure has been a concern.
“We’re aiming to build a world-class infrastructure to see how we can improve Nigeria’s infrastructure without burdening the federal government,” he said. So, where do you (Nigerians in the Diaspora) stand right now? He said, “We’d like you to come join us and work with us.”
He reaffirmed the central bank’s decision not to allow cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria’s financial system, while also expressing enthusiasm for the e-Naira, the central bank’s digital currency, which would be introduced in a few days.
According to Emefiele, the originally planned introduction of the e-Naira on the same date would likely be moved to October 4, 2021 due to celebrations around Nigeria’s Independence Day on October 1.
“The central bank would not want the event to detract from the celebration of the country’s independence,” he said.
“We will be the first African country to create a digital money. It is an innovative proposal because we believe it will promote trade. With Nigeria as Africa’s largest country, this will set the tone for Africa to know that we are ready to lead and that we will actually lead in trade. “We are already working on certain coordination with all central bankers in ECOWAS to make trade, payment, and banking systems interact in such a way to set an example on the AfCFTA,” he added.
All of the aforementioned activities, according to the central bank governor, will certainly encourage economic growth, which will likely outpace population growth, enhance wealth, and increase production growth.
Emefiele had previously analyzed the Nigerian economy’s performance between 2015 and 2019, citing the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 on the economy and listing numerous fiscal and monetary measures taken to support families and businesses.
“Of course, we took a number of offsetting actions because we believed the government, particularly the fiscal and monetary authorities, bore a significant share of blame.
“We witnessed fiscal fragility because the fiscal space was very limited; the deficit was narrow, and the fiscal space to release money to catalyze the economy was quite limited. As a result, the monetary policy decided it was necessary for us to see what we could do,” he explained.
He maintained that the base year effect was responsible for the 5.01 percent GDP increase in the second quarter of 2021, noting that the base year effect would have gone by the time the third and fourth quarter GDP data were released.
He did, however, forecast a 2.86 percent growth rate in 2021.
“We believe that some of the things we’ve done are yielding benefits, so we’re going to go all out,” Emefiele added.
Meanwhile, the CNPP has rejected the PDP’s proposal for Emefiele to resign.
In a statement issued in Abuja, the CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willie Ezeugwu, said the CBN Governor had done nothing to deserve the call for his resignation, adding that the PDP does not have the support of other opposition political parties in this call.
The PDP’s assertion was puzzling because the National Secretary of the APC National Caretaker Committee did not mention Emefiele in Senator John Udoedehe’s interview.
According to Ezeugwu, the fact that the PDP’s top and leading members have been resigning in large numbers “due to the unattractive nature of the party on the watch of the current National Working Committee of the Party rather than chasing shadows when its house is consumed by an inferno” should be of greater concern to the party.
“The Nigerian opposition parties are currently supposed to be undergoing internal healing and rebuilding in order to be well positioned to take power in 2023, but the activities of the Uche Secondus-led PDP have reduced opposition politics to child’s play and possibly being for hire to operators of BDCs who are fighting the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria over the policy to stop selling forex to BDCs.
“If the likes of Uche Secondus and Mr. Kola Ologbodion are left in the critical positions they currently hold in the party, the PDP will quickly devolve into a briefcase political party.
“They should be given the way out rather than joining hirelings in making misdirected calls based on ludicrous, false, and unsubstantiated claims,” it continued.
