The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said the apex bank has fully deployed all conventional and non-conventional monetary policies in the wake of the country’s slip into recession, but regrets that the problem is not caused by monetary issues.
Emefiele said this at the opening ceremony of the retreat by the Fiscal Liquidity Assessment Committee, which opened in Abuja.
He said, “Monetary policy had under the circumstances rose to the occasion, deploying fully all the conventional and non-conventional tools in its purview. However, as you will know, the conditions that precipitated the economic crisis are structural, with antidotes that lie mostly outside the domain of monetary policy.
“As being often adumbrated in the media and policy discussions, the quick fixes include fiscal stimulus to resuscitate domestic production, qualitative public sector spending to stimulate aggregate demand, and practical steps to diversify the economy away from oil into agriculture, manufacturing, and services, improved internal revenue generation, increased fiscal discipline and general improvement in the business environment to attract investors.”
Emefiele said apart from plummeting oil prices, other factors had added to the nation’s domestic economic woes.
He listed these to include energy shortages and hikes in the prices of energy, depressed consumer demand resulting from weak fiscal spending, and spate of militant attacks and insurgency hampering domestic crude oil production.
