*Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, affirms the Bank’s bespoke, homegrown and ingenious approach to policies has placed the West African country on the global map as a working economy has been effective

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has stated that the Nigerian economy performed far better than many of its peers, because of proactive homegrown and ingenious approach the Bank has adopted.

绿帽献妻 reports Emefiele disclosed this development in his opening remarks at the 2022 retreat of the MPC titled, 鈥楳onetary Policy Implementation In A Digitally-Evolving, Developing Economy鈥�, held聽 Friday, July 15, in Lagos.

According to the CBN Governor, the evolution of FinTechs, cryptocurrencies, digital payments, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, have changed the functioning of the financial and banking sectors, both globally and domestically.

According to him, there is the urgent call for the need to rethink financial system regulation, supervision, and monetary policy implementation in the country.

Emefiele also stated: 鈥淲hile the innovations come with a lot of risks and uncertainties for the sectors, they also have many benefits for positive economic transformation and particularly, financial inclusion which has been the principal catalyst for inclusive growth, poverty reduction, and employment generation.

鈥淲e have seen what is happening in the global economy and we are going to be addressing those issues and see if we can chart a new course and what next we should do in the coming years to see to it that we provide monetary policy direction for the Nigerian economy.”

The CBN Chief further noted: 鈥淪o, we would be expecting new ideas, new strategies on monetary policy in a digitised global economy, what we are going to be doing in light of the challenges posed by FinTech, cryptocurrencies agents globally, and what direction to take.

鈥淚 can assure you that after this meeting, we would see a new improved monetary policy and a new and improved CBN that would provide direction for monetary policy in Nigeria.鈥�

The CBN policies to place Nigeria on the global map as a working economy have been effective, as the country has withstood two recessions within four years, said Emefiele.

He also stated: 鈥淲hile the Nigerian economy has been engulfed with many crises, just like many other countries of the world, we have been able to relatively withstand the storm overcoming two recessions within four years and have performed far better than many of our peers, courtesy of our bespoke, homegrown and ingenious approach of adopting well thought-out and home-grown policy measures aimed at addressing our macroeconomic challenges,鈥� he said.

Emefiele as well stated: 鈥淢onetary policy has been severely challenged, as its policy space narrowed significantly, in some cases, paradoxically and necessitating the need to rethink monetary policy in the context of emerging challenges and economic transformation.

鈥淭he central banking and monetary policy relevance in the digital ecosystem are sometimes challenged as the regulatory oversight functions are largely eroded or weakened by impotency of traditional tools in carrying out those functions.”

He added: 鈥淚n order to ensure the relevance of monetary policy and the role of monetary authorities in the new digital world, he challenged the MPC members to embrace advanced level understanding of the interplay of digitalisation with monetary policy objectives, targets, and tools.鈥�

In a related development, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, increased to 18.60 percent June 2022, up from 17.71 percent in the previous month.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this is the highest figure since January 2017.

Despite the prevailing harsh economic circumstances in the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly believes Nigeria is better prepared and positioned to cope with disruptions in the global agricultural supply chain, prompted by COVID-19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.