CBN: We won’t be distracted from steering the economy away from recession

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says Godwin Emefiele, its governor, and his team will not be distracted from their efforts to steer the Nigerian economy away from the looming recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Isaac Okorafor (pictured), CBN director of the corporate communications, on Wednesday, said the apex bank has “uncovered sinister plans by some persons to discredit the institution through deliberate misinformation, complete fabrications and outright lies”.

Okorafor said the bank will continue to strive to ensure an increment to the external reserves in order to safeguard the international value of the naira in pursuit of its mandate enshrined in the CBN Act (2007).

The director attributed the stability of the naira in the past three years to strict measures put in place by the bank to check cases of round-tripping.

He also said the bank has been working with other relevant agencies of the government and “curtailed the activities of economic saboteurs neck-deep in smuggling and other economic crimes”.

According to Okorafor, the bank, under Emefiele’s leadership, has made genuine patriotic efforts at promoting economic growth and development through its intervention programmes, particularly in the agricultural sector.

He described the bank’s anchor borrowers’ programme (ABP) as a major contributor to shielding Nigeria from food crisis when major rice-producing countries of the world halted exports from their shores due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

He listed other interventions to help steer the economy away from recession to include the N50 billion targeted credit facility (TCF) for households and small businesses affected by COVID-19 and the N100 billion credit support for the health sector.

He expressed dissatisfaction to a situation where persons with vested interest in the economy and its socio-political landscape continued to misinform Nigerians and defame the integrity of the institution and its key officers.

Okorafor assured that the CBN will remain committed to transparency and it will continue to pursue its mandate in the interest of the majority of Nigerians rather than for the “selfish interest of a few”.