Emefiele: We will make it difficult for people to bypass our economic policies

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says his next tenure would be used to pursue policies that will further diversify the economy and make it difficult for people to circumvent policies.

Emefiele, who was recently confirmed for a second term as governor of the apex bank, made this known on Friday at a special convocation of the University of Nigeria (UNN), where he was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree in business administration.

“Nigeria belongs to all of us and we have a role to play to make sure things get better,” he said.

“I will also emphasise that Nigerian policymakers are good at developing policies, but the biggest challenge of the Nigerian economic policy is that people try circumventing policies.

“Given this opportunity now, we will make it very difficult for people to circumvent economic policies.

“We must learn to respect our policies. If you don’t respect the economic policies of this country, and you fall short of our economic policies as an economic saboteur, you will be dealt with.”

According to the CBN governor, a lot still has to be done to ensure that the economic growth experienced so far is consolidated.

“Challenges still remain such as ensuring that the pace of GDP growth remains well ahead of our annual population growth at 2.7 percent. But this can only be achieved if we continue to support efforts aimed at improving domestic production of goods in Nigeria.”

Recently, the CBN boss warned that businesses that engage in smuggling will be blacklisted and barred from carrying out transactions with commercial banks.

His second term will begin on June 3.