Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has debunked the insinuations in some quarters that policies of the government were meant to few the few in the society. Instead, policies were always designed to serve the best interest of majority of Nigerians.
Mr. Emefiele, who was responding to concerns raised by a panelist at the Annual Media Trust Dialogue in Abuja on Thursday, noted that “policies were put in place to help Nigeria pull through the hard time.”
He observed that the country found itself in the present situation due to lack of appropriate commitment to economic diversification, especially when the earnings from oil were as high as $140 per barrel, just as he noted that earnings of the government had risen to height of $3.2 billion and fell to about 500m per month recently.
According to the Apex Bank Governor, there was also a time when the crude oil price stabilized at $105 per barrel over a period of five years. “What did we do with the huge accretion to the reserves then?” he queried.
Emefiele, therefore, counseled the critics of the CBN and government policies that “priority will be given to Nigerian masses by managing the limited resources to provide for industrial raw materials, plants and equipment and agricultural inputs in order to create employment and generate wealth.”
One of the panelists, Mr. Atedo Peterside, had raised concern that the foreign exchange policies of the CBN is hurting business interests to which the CBN Governor responded that policy makers don’t make policies in isolation or designed to hurt the citizenry but with the objectives to improve the life of all concerned nit just for a few powerful and rich individuals.
•CBN Governor Emefiele.
