CBN will fight smugglers to protect the economy—Emefiele
…Says weekly diaspora remittance up 500%
Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefie yesterday said that the apex bank is committed to fighting smugglers in its bid to protect the growth of the economy and ensure job creation.
Emefiele also announced that weekly Diaspora remittance has increased by 500 per cent to $30 million from $5 million, following the new policy of the apex bank on remittance inflow.
The Governor stated this, noting that the nation’s recovery from recession is very fragile and Nigeria must not be left out of the economic recovery projected to happen across the global economy in 2021.
To further enhance and sustain the nation’s economic recovery Emefiele said there is need for broad actions in four policy areas, including protection of the local economy from activities of smugglers.
He said: “ While the indicators provide positive signs that the economy is on a recovery path, GDP growth at 0.11 percent indicates that the economy still remains on a fragile recovery path.
“It is therefore imperative that we do all we can in 2021 to ensure that we build on the positive momentum and strengthen our efforts at stimulating growth. Let me repeat, with the 18 discovery and deployment of vaccines, 2021 will be a year of massive global recovery and Nigeria MUST not be left out. In order to drive and sustain this recovery therefore, we need to engage in the following broad actions including:
“Sustain the accommodative fiscal and monetary policy measures aimed at improving access to finance to households and businesses.
“Prevent a resurgence in COVID-19 related cases; Ensure that a significant number of our population is properly vaccinated; Improving Foreign Exchange inflows into the country.”
Speaking in the need to check activities of smuggling, Emefiele said: “We say this and let me use this opportunity to say this, the CBN has never said that the closure of the borders should be in perpetuity, yes the CBN advocated the closure of the borders because of some of the unfortunate incidence of smuggling of goods into our economy that were undermining the growth of our own local industries.
“We have started to see it. Yes we advocated and we support the opening of the borders. Yes we support it but we will continue to insist that the activities of smugglers must do something about it.
“The CBN will remain at the forefront to smugglers in this country. We will not allow smugglers of goods that are banned, goods that are not allowed, goods that are restricted, goods that can be produced in the country, we will not allow those goods into the country.
“We will collaborate with any security agency willing to work with us because we must protect our own local industry.
“It is only by protecting our own local industries that we can create badly needed jobs for our economy. It is only by protecting our own local industries and then making it easy for people to accept low priced products that we can see growth for our economy.
“Whether you are a Nigerian or foreigner but we all have a shared stake in the Nigerian economy. We all must work together, to see to it that Nigeria’s economy joins others particularly beginning from 2021 when we are beginning to see an opportunity to reset again, that we cannot be left out in the race. And anybody who thinks he can do anything to undermine economic growth and stability, we all must join hands to fight against this.”
Speaking on the upsurge in remittance inflow, Emefiele said: “The CBN has already taken several measures to increase the flow of diaspora remittances into the country using formal channels. In December 2020, we instructed all international money transfer operators (IMTOs) to provide remitters with the option of sending foreign exchange to beneficiaries in Nigeria.
“This new measure has helped to reduce the diversion of forex by some International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs), who had thrived from forex arbitrage arrangements, rather than on improving transactions volumes to Nigeria. Indeed, we have already seen remittances improve from a weekly average of about $5 million before this policy, to over $30 million per week. We believe this measure will help to significantly boost inflows of forex and create much more liquidity in that space.”
FG needs banks, others to fund critical infrastructure, others – Finance Minister
The Federal Government appealed for the support of banks and other financial institutions to fund critical infrastructure in the country.
The Minister of Finance, National Planning and Budget, Zainab Ahmed made this appeal in a goodwill address at the Banks’ CEO Summit saying that support of the financial institutions has become necessary, given the challenge of revenue generation confronting the government.
The Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary Special Duties of the Ministry of Finance, Aliyu Ahmed Shinkafi said: “Banks have a critical role to play in economic development. However, the impact of the banking system on the rest of the economy depends on how it mobilizes savings, allocates the savings, monitors the use of the funds by firms and individuals, pools and diversifies risk, including liquidity risk, and eases the exchange of goods and services.
“When the banking system performs well, it tends to promote growth and expand economic opportunities. Economic growth is about enhancing the productive capacity of an economy by using available resources to reduce risks, remove impediments which otherwise could increase costs of doing business and hinder investment.”
To this extent, she said: “The country needs more revenue to finance its obligations to the citizens in the areas of critical infrastructure, and other socioeconomic programmes. There is no doubt that the country can no longer rely on oil as the major source of revenue generation. Hence, there is an urgent need to focus more attention on non-oil revenue sources.
“As managers of the economy, we have a collective responsibility to come up with strategies on how to steadily grow the nation’s revenue base amidst the current global challenges orchestrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Maintaining a safe and sound banking sector is essential, given the key role that banks play in facilitating economic growth and financing developmental projects, particularly infrastructure, agriculture and other sectors. Most emerging market economies have been known to use the domestic financial institutions to execute real sector big ticket projects and financial institutions in Nigeria should not be an exception if we hope to achieve our developmental objectives.”
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