Development financing: Past interventions caused too much damage, gulped over N10trn, says Cardoso

Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says previous direct development interventions by the financial regulator gulped over N10 trillion.

Cardoso disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking to journalists after the monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.

On October 12, 2023, the CBN governor said the apex bank would pull back from direct development interventions, stressing the need for the apex bank to return to its core function of monetary policies and advisory roles to support economic growth.

Speaking at the news conference on Tuesday, Cardoso reiterated the CBN’s resolve to move away from the intervention programmes but noted that the bank is open to partnerships.

“The intervention has two dysfunctions. One it takes a lot of time for something you do not have an expertise to do, and two, if not carefully handled, creates a lot of distortions in your economy through inflow of money supply,” Cardoso said. 

“The interventions that took place in the recent past were estimated in excess of N10 trillion. I’m not talking about ways or means. What was the budget of the federal government of Nigeria? What was the budget of the largest states in Nigeria? Do the maths and it would tell you the extent of damage too much of what may appear to be good things can do to an economy.

“So for me, it’s a major issue. A number of things will be naive to say. We’re not going to get directly involved in interventions, those that are out there, they need to be properly monitored to ensure they come back in.

“We have to ensure that we monitor them to ensure that they come back in and we’re doing so. We are already doing that and with various degrees of success at some point in time, in the interest of transparency, those figures will be made public.

“The time when we have failed interventions is over. There is no wiggle room to take up interventions that have a great potential to fail and do not get down to the people who were intended to in the first place.”

Cardoso also said he believes the efforts and policies put in place by the apex bank are making significant impacts and bringing back confidence.