Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has taken stock of its policy positions and given kudos to itself for what has happened in the last one year.
On the sidelines of the on-going World Bank Group Spring meetings in Washington DC, United States of America, the apex bank’s spokesman, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, told Nigerian media representatives at the meeting that time has proved the CBN right contrary to positions of critics of its monetary policies which included the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF.
He also said that the recent call by the World Bank group for more currency market flexibility would not change the existing policy measures regarding foreign exchange market.
In his words: “About a year ago, we were here and the story here was different. If you recall, the Nigerian economy was going through one of its worst situations. Inflation was high, the foreign exchange market was in turmoil and the economy was in recession. Our foreign reserves were down and the whole situation was ominous.
“I can recall that at that time we knew what we were doing but everybody was saying we were wrong but we waited for the time for things to play out. Today I’m happy to report that time has proved that we were right and they were wrong about our economy.
“We have our reserves strong, over $47 billion, inflation has gone down to 13.34, foreign exchange market is now very stable and growth has taken off, we are out of recession. We are happy to report that everything we have done proved to be right and we will continue to do that.
“We have continued to fund the real sector more vigorously, the issue of productivity is very important. We have launched the SMEIS, the new Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme, which will also support production by small and medium enterprises.
“We have launched the AADS, Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme, which will further boost employment especially youth employment.
“We know we are on the right track, we’ll continue to build up reserves. We have maintained stability in the foreign exchange market for the past nine months. “Industrial production has improved because we have steadily supplied the manufacturing sector with foreign exchange for their raw materials and machinery. So we are happy that this year not a negative mention has been said about Nigeria, it is left for them to admit that we were right and they were wrong.”
Responding to the call by IMF for exchange rate flexibility, he stated: “We have achieved a considerable level of exchange rate stability through the investors and exporters window. Since it was launched it has continued to bring in a lot of foreign exchange. Stability is a relative thing. We have achieved stability in a significant way and we are working towards a time when all the sectors of the market converge at one point. As time goes on, we will see it play out as we promised last year.”
