Gov. Godwin Emefiele, CON
5 year Policy Thrust of
Central Bank of Nigeria.
2019 – 2024.
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen and thank you for your presence at this Press
Briefing. You would all recall that on 05 June 2014; following my assumption of office as
the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, I addressed a similar gathering to share
with you my vision for my first term in office.
It is in the same vein that we have called you again today to briefly reflect on our
journey over the past 5 years, and outline our vision and policy thrust for the next 5
years.
2. But before I begin my remarks, please permit me to thank the Almighty God for
giving me the opportunity to continue to serve our country again . I would also
like to thank President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) for not only re-appointing
me, but also for his support and confidence in the leadership of the Central Bank
of Nigeria over the past 4 years. I thank the Nigerian Senate as well for
confirming my nomination. Finally, I thank the management and staff of the
Central Bank of Nigeria, for their hard work and dedication, particularly at
moments when the Central Bank and indeed the Nigerian people faced difficult
economic conditions.
Whatever achievements the CBN recorded in addressing those difficult
conditions, was indeed reflective of the collective efforts of the management and
staff of this great institution.
3. In my remarks today, I will be speaking on our efforts towards promoting price
and monetary stability, exchange rate stability, financial system stability as well
as our efforts to spur growth through our development finance interventions.
Thereafter, I will speak on my vision for the Central Bank of Nigeria over the next
five years, which is primarily driven by the need to support continued growth and
development of the Nigerian Economy.
4. You will recall that during my maiden address on June 5, 2014, I stated that my
vision would be to ensure that the Central Bank of Nigeria is more people
focused, as its policies and programs would be geared towards supporting job
creation, reducing the high level of Treasury-Bill rates, improving access to
credit for MSMEs, deepening our intervention program in the Agricultural Sector,
building a robust payment system infrastructure that will help drive inclusion, in
addition to key macroeconomic concerns such as exchange rate stability,
financial system stability and maintaining a strong external reserve.
5. As is the case with most plans, although most of the goals we set were achieved,
I would be the first to admit that everything did not happen as contemplated. The
normalization of monetary policy in the United States and the over 60 percent
drop in crude oil prices between 2014 and 2016, had significant adverse
consequences on our economy and made us adjust our methods to ensure that
we still implemented most parts of our vision. Given Nigeria’s dependence on
crude oil revenues for close to 86 percent of our foreign exchange earnings and
over 60 percent of government expenditure, the drop-in prices led to heightened
inflationary pressures, depreciation of our exchange rate, significant drop in our
external reserves, and eventually, a recession set in during the 2nd Quarter of
2016.
6. With concerted efforts by the monetary and fiscal authorities we implemented a
series of measures which led to the recovery of our economy from the recession
by the 1st Quarter of 2017. Building on these efforts, I am delighted to note that
our external reserves have risen from $23bn in October 2016 to over $45billion
by June 2019. Inflation has dropped from 18.72 percent in January 2017 to 11.40
percent in May 2019. Our CBN purchasing manufacturers index has risen for 26
consecutive months since March 2017, indicating continuous growth in the
manufacturing sector, as a result of measures implemented by the CBN which
has improved access to raw materials and finance for manufacturing firms. GDP
growth has risen for seven consecutive quarters following the recession, and our
exchange rate has appreciated from over N525/$1 in February 2017 at the BDC
window to N360/$1. With improved inflow of foreign exchange, the exchange rate
has remained stable around N360/$1 for the past 27 months.
7. Recovery Efforts
Part of the measures we deployed to support the recovery include tightening of
the monetary policy rate in order to rein in inflation; we also created an Investors
and Exporters Window which allowed exporters and investors to inflow and sell
their foreign exchange at the prevailing market rate. In order to reduce our
reliance on the importation of items which could be produced in Nigeria, we
restricted access to foreign exchange on 43 items, while deploying our
intervention funds to support growth and productivity in the agricultural and
manufacturing sectors. These measures helped to support the attainment of our
monetary policy objectives such as a reduction in the inflation rate, stability in our
exchange rate and improved accretion to our external reserves.
8. Financial System Stability
As some of you are aware, the drop-in commodity prices affected a good number
of banks given their exposure to the oil and gas sector. Unfortunately, these
resulted in an increase in Non- performing loans of our banks. As a result of risk
management measures embarked upon by the CBN, capital adequacy and
liquidity ratios of our commercial banks are now above the prudential level.
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Capital Adequacy Ratio for the banking industry improved from 11 percent in
June 2017 to over 16 percent in May 2019 and liquidity levels have also
increased by over 20 percent within the same period. In addition, the ratio of nonperforming loans in the banking system has reduced from 15 percent in June
2017 to 9 percent in May 2019, due to concerted efforts by the CBN and the
DMBs, although more work is being done to moderate NPL levels to the
maximum prescribed level of 5 percent. Our financial institutions are well
positioned to perform their intermediation role, which will ultimately help in
supporting the growth of our economy.
9. Access to Credit and Developmental Finance
As part of the goals set in 2014, we increased our development finance
interventions in order to catalyze growth in critical sectors of the economy. Our
objectives were driven by the need to increase investments by MSMEs as well as
spur consumer spending, as these factors would have a positive impact on GDP
growth and employment. Furthermore, our development finance efforts were
driven by the need to reduce our reliance on revenues from crude oil.
10. At a point in our nation’s history, Nigeria survived on revenues from the non-oil
sector, to the extent that we were a dominant exporter of agricultural produce into
the global market. Some of these products include, Cocoa, Groundnuts, Cotton
and Palm-Oil. Our focus in agriculture supported the raw material needs of our
industrial sector and created employment opportunities for millions of Nigerians.
Regrettably, the discovery of crude oil and the increasing reliance on crude oil
revenues led to a severe downturn in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors,
while also exposing our economy to the vulnerabilities that normally accompany
an increased dependence on a single commodity for survival. For example, if
Nigeria had maintained its market dominance in the palm oil industry, which
stood at 40 percent in the 70s, we would be earning above $20 billion annually
from cultivation and processing of palm oil today.
This would have provided a sufficient buffer for our nation following the drop in
crude oil prices. Our situation is further worsened by the unpatriotic activities of
some unscrupulous individuals and businesses who embarked on massive
smuggling and dumping of goods that can be produced in the country thus
leading to the demise of our agricultural and manufacturing sectors and hence
the attendant high level of unemployment.
11. Fellow Nigerians, we have a responsibility to reverse the current ugly trend
where any external shock affecting oil producing countries bring us to our
knees.
12. To correct this trend and as part of our intervention programs, we launched the
Anchor Borrowers Program, which has improved access to finance for
over 1m small holder farmers, who are leading our efforts to improve
cultivation of agricultural commodities, such as rice, tomatoes, fish, cotton
and palm oil. The Anchor Borrowers Program also enabled agroprocessors and manufacturers to source their inputs from local sources,
rather than relying on the importation of these items. We also deployed
other intervention facilities such as the Commercial Agricultural Credit
Scheme, and the Real Sector Support Fund. These funds were used to
channel single digit interest loans through our Deposit Money Banks and
other Participating Financial Institutions to beneficiaries to support
improved growth in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The
effectiveness of these interventions in supporting the growth of our local
industries, has been supported by our FOREX restrictions on the
importation of items that can be produced in Nigeria.
13. We also embarked on measures to discourage smuggling of restricted items into
the country, by imposing restrictions on the use of financial institutions in
Nigeria by identified smugglers, as their activities undermined the growth
of our local industries. These measures are aiding our efforts to support
local cultivation of goods in areas such as cotton, rice, palm oil etc.
14. We also sought to improve access to credit for MSMEs given the critical role they
play in supporting the growth of our economy. Poor access to credit has been
highlighted as a significant constraint to the growth of MSMEs. Moreover, given
the impact of the recession, it was more important to restart the flow of credit to
MSMEs to enable them engage in productive activities that would support
growth. As part of efforts to support this objective, we created a N220bn MSME
funds, which has been critical in supporting the growth of MSMEs in the
agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
15. We set up the National Collateral Registry and supported the passage of
legislation governing the activities of the National Collateral Registry and the
Credit Bureaus. These measures have helped to encourage the flow of credit to
SMEs by allowing them to provide movable assets as collateral in order to obtain
finance from banks, relative to the previous process which required that they
provide fixed assets. So far over N400 billion worth of assets have been
registered in the collateral registry by MSMEs. The activities of the credit bureaus
are also reducing the risk encountered by banks in lending to businesses, as it
has helped to identify credit worthy borrowers.
These two initiatives contributed to the improvement in Nigeria’s Doing Business
Scorecard in the World Bank’s 2017 Doing Business Rankings of 180 countries,
as Nigeria moved up by 24 points from 169 to 144.
16. Payment System
Conscious that over 40 percent of eligible Nigerians in 2015 lacked access to
financial services, we embarked on a couple of steps to improve access to
finance.
Through initiatives such as the Shared Agent Network Facility(SANEF) and the
launch of our policy on Payment Service Banks, which enables non-banks to
provide limited financial services, we sought to encourage the use of
technological tools in improving access to finance for people who live in
underserved parts of the country. We also set up a payment services
management department solely dedicated to enabling the build-up of a robust
payment systems infrastructure, while seeking to contain the risk to the financial
system that could emerge from the use of digital channels. As a result of our
efforts, the total volume of retail electronic payments has witnessed a threefold
increase over the last five years. New financial access points are being created
in parts of the North East and North West as a result of measures deployed by
the Central Bank to extend financial services to the underserved in our rural
communities.
17. Salary Bailout
The drop-in commodity prices and the resulting effects on government revenue,
led to a severe drop in the earnings of most states in the country. Over 34 states
incurred huge salary arrears and were unable to provide essential services,
which led to the decision by the National Economic Council in June 2015, that
the CBN work with Deposit Money Banks to provide support to state
governments. In order to avert prolonged hardship in states, we provided an
assistance program to states, which helped them to settle their overdue salary
and pension obligations. These measures helped to ease some of the budget
difficulties faced by state governments between 2015 – 2017.
It also provided enough cushion for states to begin to develop plans to generate
revenue from alternative sources in an attempt to make the states economically
viable.
18. Challenges
While these results are reassuring, I think it’s fair to state that our task of building
a stronger economy is far from complete. The pace of GDP growth remains
fragile and is below the rate of our annual population growth at 2.7 percent. The
recovery of our economy from the recession has not resulted in a significant
reduction in our unemployment rate. We are yet to see a substantial increase in
credit to the private sector by our financial institutions.
The unexpected drop in crude prices given its impact on our economy also
derailed our attempts at achieving some of the steps outlined in our vision such
as bringing down the rate of T-Bills and in reducing the unemployment rate.
Our inability to address these challenges only served to reinforce our view that
the CBN must continue to play an active role in supporting the growth of our
economy, and redirect our emphasis on sectors that have the ability to support
improved wealth and job creation for Nigerians such as the agricultural and
manufacturing sectors.
19. Downside Risk to Growth in the near to medium term
Beyond our domestic challenge of high unemployment and subdued growth, our
economy is faced with 3 external events, which have the ability to affect our
growth trajectory over the near to medium term. First, rising trade tensions
between the United States and China, United States and Mexico and subdued
growth in the Eurozone as well as other emerging economies such as China,
India, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey, are affecting the outlook for
global growth in 2019 and 2020.The World Bank according to its latest report,
projects that global growth will decline to 2.6 percent in 2019 from 3.0 percent in
2018, as a result of the above-mentioned factors.
20. The second external challenge that may emerge from rising trade tensions and a
potential slowdown in growth in advanced and emerging economies, is the
impact it could have on capital flows to emerging markets. The risk of sudden
stops and reversals of capital flows has increased as some investors weigh the
benefits of investing in safe assets in advanced economies relative to assets in
emerging markets.
Third, we are also witnessing rising volatility in the crude oil market occasioned
by the rapid increase in the supply of shale oil by the United States, which has
seen its production rise from 9 million barrels in 2017 to over 12 million barrels
today. The rise in US production continues to put downward pressure on crude
oil prices, despite restrictions on crude oil output by OPEC members and
sanctions by the US on the purchase of crude oil from Iran and Venezuela.
21. Our Vision for the Next 5 years
Fellow Nigerians, few weeks ago, we held consultations with some banks and
business leaders in the Private sector. We thank them immensely for their
thought provoking ideas and counsel. We intend to sustain the pace of those
consultations as this would act as barometer for measuring the progress being
made in the implementation of our policies. Our assessment of the outcome of
that deliberation shows that with concerted efforts, the challenges facing the
country are easily surmountable.
Consequently, working closely with our fiscal authorities, we pledge to target a
double digit growth by the next five years and at the CBN, we commit to working
assiduously to bringing down inflation to single digit; while accelerating the rate of
employment. Put succinctly, our priorities at the CBN over the next 5 years are
the following; First, preserve domestic macroeconomic and financial stability;
Second, foster the development of a robust payments system infrastructure that
will increase access to finance for all Nigerians thereby raising the financial
inclusion rate in the country; Third, continue to work with the Deposit Money
Banks to improve access to credit for not only small holder farmers and MSMEs
but also Consumer credit and mortgage facilities for bank customers. Our
intervention support shall also be extended to our youth population who possess
entrepreneurship skills in the creative industry.
This group deserve our encouragement. We shall also during this intervening
period encourage our Deposit Money Banks to direct more focus in supporting
the Education Sector. Fourth, grow our external reserves; and fifth, support
efforts at diversifying the economy through our intervention programs in the
agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
We are confident that when implemented, these measures will help to insulate
our economy from potential shocks in the global economy.
In my second term in office, part of my pledge, is to work to the best of my
abilities in fulfilling these objectives.
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22. Macroeconomic Stability
On Macro-Economic Stability, over the next 5 years, with a key emphasis on
supporting improved GDP growth and greater private sector investment, we
intend to leverage monetary policy tools in supporting a low inflation
environment, while seeking to maintain stability in our exchange rate. As a result;
• Decisions by the Monetary policy committee on inflation and interest rates will be
dependent on insights generated from data on key economic variables.
• We would also strive to continue to sustain a positive interest rate regime to the
delight of our important stakeholders.
• Monetary policy measures embarked upon by the CBN will be geared towards
containing inflationary pressures and supporting improved productivity in the
agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
• Working with other stakeholders, we intend to bring down the cost of food items,
which have considerable weight in the Consumer Price Index basket.
• Our ultimate objective is to anchor the public’s inflation expectation at single
digits in the medium to long run. We believe a low and stable inflationary
environment is essential to the growth of our economy because it will help
support long term planning by individuals and businesses.
• It will also help to lower interest rates charged by banks to businesses thereby
facilitating improved access to credit, and a corresponding growth in output and
employment.
23. Exchange Rate Stability
We will continue to operate a managed float exchange rate regime in order to
reduce the impact which continuous volatility in the exchange rate could have on
our economy.
• We will support measures that will increase and diversify Nigeria’s exports base
and ultimately help in shoring up our reserves. While the dynamics of global
trade continues to evolve in advanced economies, Nigeria remains committed to
a free trade regime that is mutually beneficial; but, particularly aimed at
supporting our domestic industries and creating jobs on a mass scale for
Nigerians.
• We intend to aggressively implement our N500bn facility aimed at supporting the
growth of our non-oil exports, which will help to improve non-oil export earnings.
• We will launch a Trade Monitoring System(TRMS) in October 2019, which is an
automated system that will reduce the length of time required to process export
documents from 1 week to 1 day. This measure will help support our efforts at
improving our non-oil exports of goods and services
• We will also work with our counterparts in the fiscal arm in supporting improved
FDI flows to various sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, insurance and
infrastructure. These measures while supporting improved inflows into the
country, will help to stabilize our exchange rate and build our external reserves.
24. Financial System Stability
A resilient and stable financial system is imperative for continued growth of our
economy given the intermediation role that financial institutions play in supporting
the needs of individuals and businesses.
As a result,
• We will continue to improve our onsite and off-site supervision of all financial
institutions, while leveraging on data analytics and our in-house experts across
different sectors, to improve our ability to identify potential risks to the financial
system as well as risks to individual banks.
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• In the next five years, we intend to pursue a program of recapitalizing the
Banking Industry so as to position Nigerian banks among the top 500 in the
world. Banks will therefore be required to maintain higher level of capital, as well
as liquid assets in order to reduce the impact of an economic crisis on the
financial system.
• With the rise in digital payments and cyber security threats, we will develop a
robust mechanism that will help ensure that the necessary safeguards are put in
place by banks and financial institutions to protect against loss of data, fraud and
cyber incursions in their respective systems.
25. Robust Payment System Infrastructure
An efficient payment system is vital to the effectiveness of monetary policy
interventions.
It also helps in reducing the cost involved in payment for goods and services.
The Payment Services Management Department in the CBN will work to enable
the buildup of a robust and secure payments infrastructure in Nigeria that is
reliable and easy to access.
•We will reinvigorate our efforts at driving the cashless initiative across the country,
due to the immense efficiency gains that will be derived from it, and the impact it
could have on our financial inclusion drive.
• Given Nigeria’s large size, and the cost involved in building bank branches
across the country, the payment system department would support the spread
and utilization of digital modes of transactions, so that every Nigerian will have
access to financial services.
• A strong emphasis will also be placed on improving speed and efficiency of
payments channels, while working to ensure that digital channels are safe and
secure. This will help to build confidence in our nation’s payment system.
• In order to improve utilization rate, we will continue to ensure that payment
channels are interoperable, which will enable individuals with digital devices to
transact across different banks or payment modes.
• Through measures such as the cashless initiative, USSD, Mobile Banking, agent
networks and Payments Service Banks, Nigerians can expect to see significant
improvements in the payment systems infrastructure over the next 5 years.
• We will also work with NIBSS, Banks and Fintechs in developing a regulatory
sandbox. This sandbox will enable us to test financial
innovations by Fintechs and Banks in a controlled environment, in order to assess its
impact on the growth and safety of our financial system.
26. Targeted Development Finance
Building on the success of our Anchor Borrowers Program and other intervention
programs geared towards supporting the growth of our agriculture and
manufacturing sectors, and in keeping with the recent Presidential Directives, we
intend to:
• Boost productivity growth through the provision of improved seedlings, as
well as access to finance for rural farmers in the agricultural sector, across
10 different commodities namely: Rice, Maize, Cassava, Cocoa, Tomato,
Cotton, Oil-palm, Poultry, Fish, and Livestock/Dairy.
• Our choice of these 10 crops is driven by the amount spent on the
importation of these items into the country, and the over 10 million jobs
that could be created over the next 5 years if efforts are made to expand
cultivation and processing of these items in Nigeria. So far, we have held
series of engagements with importers and producers of these products.
Most of them have committed that they would install or expand their
production capacities in Nigeria. We believe these measures will help to
boost not only our domestic outputs but also improve our annual non-oil
exports receipts from $2bn in 2018 to $12bn by 2023.
• Our intervention programs will strengthen the linkage between farmers
and agro-processors/manufacturers by ensuring that the output of farmers is
purchased by agro-processors/manufacturers.
• This linkage with agro processors is necessary in order to prove that
farmers are creditworthy individuals with bankable contracts. It will also help
to unlock private capital flows from financial institutions to farmers, in order to
enable farmers meet orders from agro processors.
• To complement the progress made so far as well as the lesson learnt from
the conduct of previous programs, we intend to strengthen the capacity
building arm of the Anchor Borrowers Program, which will help support
better farming practices and higher outputs for farmers.
• Through the credit bureaus, we will also leverage technological tools such
as analytics in identifying and supporting farmers that have exhibited good
credit behavior, in repayment of their loan obligations. This measure will
improve their ability to source for financing from commercial banks.
• We will introduce a non-oil export aspect to the anchor borrowers’
program, which will be focused on linking smallholder farmers to international
buyers.
• To discourage the activities of smugglers, who bring in restricted goods
into the country, perpetrators and their affiliated companies will be blacklisted
and denied access to banking services in the entire country.
• This renewed focus of our intervention program, coupled with increased
support for research and development on improved seedlings and enhanced
farming practices, will help drive exponential growth of our agricultural and
manufacturing sectors.
27. Financial Inclusion
Over the next five years, through initiatives and policy measures such as the
Shared Agent Network (SANEF) and the payment service banks, we intend to
broaden access to financial services to individuals in underserved parts of the
country.
• Our ultimate objective is to ensure that 95 percent of eligible Nigerians have
access to financial services by 2024.
• We will also intensify our financial literacy and consumer protection programs
such that current and eligible bank customers are fully aware of the financial
services being offered to them as well as the cost of utilizing these services,
which will enable them to make well informed choices.
• Besides providing valuable information to banking customers, we are committed
to developing and enforcing strong rules to protect consumers.
• Our banking supervisory and consumer protection department at the CBN will
ensure that dispute resolution mechanism in financial institutions are not only
efficient but also timely, in order to maintain the confidence of the Nigerian
populace in the utilization of banking services.
28. Access to Credit
Beyond our intervention programs, we are also working to encourage banks and
financial institutions to lend from their balance sheet in order to support the
growth of critical sectors of the economy, such as Agriculture, MSMEs and the
Real Estate Sector. Greater emphasis on improving consumer spending and
business investment by MSMEs is critical to sustainable double digit growth of
the Nigerian economy.
• MSMEs today constitute over 90 percent of businesses in the country. Through
the national collateral registry, over N400 billion worth of movable assets have
been registered by MSMEs in the registry. We intend to triple this number over
the next 3 years.
• Our ultimate objective is to broaden the range of collaterals that MSMEs can
provide to banks in order to obtain credit.
This will help improve access to credit for farmers and MSMEs, and it will also
support the growth of their respective businesses.
29.Unique Identification
• In order to ease the constraint poor identification has on availability of
credit to prospective banking customers, the CBN will support an
aggressive enrollment of prospective banking customers in the informal
sector onto the BVN system.
• The current enrollment of 38 million unique banking customers will be expanded
to 100 million over the next 5 years. Ongoing partnership with NIMC will also
enable integration between the two databases.
• This effort will improve the comfort level on banks in providing services to an
expanded customer base. It will also aid in the development of a credit profile for
banking customers,
• which will assist in improving access to credit for credit worthy borrowers by
banks.
30.Lending to MSMEs
• The recently established NIRSAL microfinance bank will also work to improve
access to credit for MSMEs in rural communities, which will help stimulate
improved economic activities.
• In order to reduce the constraints which high account receivables, have on the
growth and operations of MSMEs, we will support the development of a Trade
Receivables Portal, which will enable MSMEs trade their invoices with financial
institutions in order to improve their cash flow and support ongoing operations of
their respective businesses.
31.Consumer Credit
• Today, less than 10 percent of adult Nigerians who have a bank account, utilize
financial products offered by banks, such as credit cards, personal loans,
mortgage loans, auto loans and consumer durable loans.
• Consumer credit is critical to the growth of our economy as it will help boost
consumer spending
accelerate improved investments by businesses, who seek to meet the demand of
consumers. Improved consumer spending and investments by businesses will
ultimately help to spur the growth of our economy and support our job creation
efforts.
• In order to spur lending to consumers, a lending framework will be announced by
the CBN, under which large departmental stores, automobile companies,
equipment leasing companies, in partnership with financial institutions, and the
credit bureaus, will be able to provide credit facilities at reasonable interest rates
to consumers. This will help to spur consumer spending and aid our efforts at
driving the growth of our economy.
• The framework being developed will support the emergence of a digital, less
burdensome process for consumers who seek to access such facilities.
• Credit patterns of consumers will be shared with credit bureaus to assess
repayment patterns and credit histories of customers. This will also enable
financial institutions to provide additional credit to creditworthy borrowers.
• Financial institutions will also be mandated to disclose to consumers the upfront
charges involved in accessing such credit facilities, in order to prevent
consumers from being abused by money lenders.
32.Mortgage Lending
• Fellow Nigerians, you will agree with me that a lot of equity is currently tied down
in mortgage assets which are today entirely cash backed. In our effort to support
the growth of Nigeria’s real estate industry , the CBN will work in developing a
framework that will enable banks to securitize mortgage loans, which can then be
sold in the capital markets.
• Adequate safeguards will be put in place to reduce the risk of delinquency in the
mortgage backed assets that will be sold in the capital markets.
• These measures will reduce the credit and liquidity risk to banks of holding these
assets on their balance sheets and improve the amount of funds available to
support mortgage loans. It will also reduce the high cost of obtaining mortgages
for banking customers.
33. Conclusion
I will like to conclude my remarks by stating that although these goals are
onerous and tasking, the CBN will remain committed to fulfilling its mandated
objectives of price and exchange rate stability. We will continue to work to
safeguard the stability of our financial system, while supporting the development
of a payment system infrastructure that will improve access to credit for all
eligible Nigerians. Nevertheless, additional emphasis will be placed on
supporting greater growth of our economy and in reducing unemployment,
through targeted interventions in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
Over the next five years, this will be the task for the Central Bank of Nigeria
under my leadership, and we intend to do our very best to achieve these
objectives.
I thank you for your attention.
Godwin I. Emefiele
Governor
Central Bank of Nigeria
