Emefiele List CBN’s Priorities for 2020, Unveils Bankers’ Charitable Endowment Fund,others
Oru Leonard
The CBN Governor pronounced the establishment of a Bankers’ Charitable Endowment Fund that will fund a major charitable initiative every year starting in 2020, when he presented a paper themed “Strong Sustainable growth for the Nigerian Economy” at the 54th Annual Bankers’ Dinner organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos on Friday, November 29, 2019.
According to him, the Bankers’ Charitable Endowment will directly fund strategic social programmes in states and local communities across Nigeria. He expressed the hope that the Fund would spur a trend across other industries and sectors to collaborate and work together to better the lives of all Nigerians.
Speaking on the developments in the country’s economic and financial sector, over the past year, and how they affect the macro-economic outlook for 2020, he said in spite of the positive growth the economy experienced, growth had remained slow due to “some structural constraints” in the economy.
However he disclose plans by the CBN to support the economic recovery and enable stronger growth for the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP.
Mr. Emefiele said that the Bank would continue its current tight stance, particularly in view of rising inflation expectations.
“Though we will act to appropriately adjust the policy rate in line with unfolding conditions and outlooks, the CBN will continue to ensure that the policy interest rate is delicately set to balance the objectives of price stability with output stabilization,” he explained.
Highlights of 2019:
Mr. Emefiele recalled that the country’s GDP had remained positive, adding that the positive growth in GDP had been driven by improvements in Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing and ICT as well as the intervention programmes of the CBN, along with sustained supply of foreign exchange and stability of the naira.
He also attributed the decline in inflation to the Bank’s maintenance of a tighter monetary policy rate at 13.5 percent, and its efforts at improving local production of key staple items.
Stronger Financial System:
Speaking further, he said the Nigerian financial system was now stronger due to the fact that capital buffers and liquidity in the banking system have continued to improve.
According to him, industry-wide Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) had increased from 10.2 percent in December 2017 to 15.5 percent in September 2019. He added that the percentage of non-performing loans in the banking sector had reduced from a high of 14.7 percent in January 2017 to under 7 percent as at October 2019. This is as result of the improved credit condition where banks in the country are now able to recover delinquent loans from customers’ accounts in other banks; which has now placed Nigerian banks in a much better position towards supporting a stronger economic recovery. This, he added, had increased gross credit by N1.16 trillion between May and October 2019.
External Reserves: The Governor said the Bank’s effort at supporting domestic production in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors among other policies, had continued to encourage foreign exchange inflows into the Nigerian market. According to him, over $60 billion worth of transaction had taken place since the inception of the Investors’ and Exporters’ window in April 2017, adding that Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves were above $40bn as at October 2019, compared to $23bn in the same period in 2016.
The Governor also highlighted the Bank’s effort in development financing, which he said the CBN had sustained in order to help support growth in critical sectors of the economy such as agriculture and the manufacturing sectors, through programmes such as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme and the Bankers Committee Agri-Business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme(AGSMEIS).
Emefiele who posited that it is possible to envision a productive Nigerian economy that is not reliant on exports of crude oil urged all stakeholders to believe in Nigeria’s greatness and redouble our efforts, stressing that the country was blessed with abundant human and natural resources, which if truly harnessed would propel Nigeria into one of the world’s top 20 economies.
Access to Credit:
The Governor said the CBN will also improve access to credit for farmers and SMES by deepening its intervention efforts through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme and the Real Sector Support Funds, amongst others. Similarly, he said the Bank, in pushing to improve access to finance and credit, would protect them from unfair banking and lending practices by maintaining oversight on the banks and other financial institutions.
In addition to making sure that financial institutions support the growth of the real sector, Mr. Emefiele said the
