He said, “Policies that have just been rolled out by the
central bank, unfortunately, will not support the growth of our economy.
“Interest rates are already very high, and jerking up
interest rates clearly will not allow small borrowers, small businesses to have
access to credit at the price to help them grow their businesses. When an
economy is in this state, it meets all the push and support.”
The governor stated that the federal government and the
leadership of the CBN should engage in indigenous policies to promote job
opportunities for youths and transform the country into productivity.
He said, “I understand the monetary rationale for increasing
MPR fundamentally and fiscally, it is not going to lead to growth in our
economy. We must focus on the fundamentals which are increasing production,
making sure our citizens produce goods and services we consume, and depend less
on imports.
“Our economic policy and monetary policy cannot be
determined by exchange rate alone, so the issue of increasing cash reserves in
the bid to tighten the liquidity is going to be detrimental to our economy.
“I understand the challenge the monetary authorities face,
but unfortunately, you cannot clap with one hand. The economy is about fiscal
and monetary policies – both must work hand-in-hand and when they don’t as they
don’t in Nigeria, there can be a crisis.
“We should focus on fiscal issues so that we can grow our
economy out of the challenges we had. We should not panic too much because of
foreign exchange. We must focus on how we can do things within our economy, and
how we can grow our economy and earn more foreign exchange if foreign exchange
is our problem, but I believe creating jobs for young people should be more of
a priority for us as people at this time.”
