The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has posited that the apex bank took the best monetary policy decision in addressing the economic challenges facing the country as the nation’s currency continues to slide down against the dollar.
The CBN Governor disclosed this on Saturday while speaking during an event in Abuja.
Emefiele noted that the country and its citizens need to embrace the idea of diversification without which the country would not be able to generate enough foreign exchange to battle the resulting effect of the naira’s fall.
At the event organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG’s Everlasting Arms Parish themed “Your life, your future — not a laughing matter”, Emefiele who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Mrs. Sarah Alade, said: “At this moment, what we are doing is what is best for the economy. The concern even among the youth is the slide in the value of the naira and I told them that we also need to diversify the economy so that we could have more exports; we are also supporting the efforts of the government on this. Once we are able to achieve this, we would have the kind of interest rate that we want.
“But at this particular time, to be able to get through the situation, we would have to take the decisions. And the Monetary Policy Committee considers all these factors before we take decisions”.
Recall that the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai blamed the CBN for the massive lay-off of Nigerians.
El-Rufai on Wednesday said: “We have a Central Bank that has an MPR at 14 per cent and banks lending at 20 per cent. I have said it before and I will repeat it again, unless the Central Bank and the banking system make a conscious decision to bring the interest rate down, one day it would be legislated”.