Rising from the 327th Bankers Committee meeting held in Abuja, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that the delay in rolling out the just approved flexible foreign exchange rate policy was because the apex bank wants to get it right this time around.Director of Banking Supervision of the CBN, Mrs. Tokunbo Martins who spoke to reporters at the end of the meeting in Abuja said that “the model is not a simple one” stressing that the determination is to get it right which is why the apex bank got a lot of inputs from stakeholders in order to properly synthesize it and roll out accordingly.
She noted that those who are waiting for currency depreciation through speculation will be deceived at the end of the day when the new initiative is rolled out. “Nigerians should exercise a little bit of patience because each policy has its own peculiarities”, she said.
Speaking on the recent sack of bank workers and the attendant federal government directive to halt same, the committee noted that the banks have recognized this and everything will be humanly done to minimize the development.
On the Anchor borrower programme earlier launched by President Muhammadu Buhari, the committee noted that several beneficiaries have emerged, making it easier for farmers to tap into the programme.
Recall when Mr. President launched the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) last year, he expressed high hopes that the scheme would lift thousands of small farmers out of poverty and generate millions of jobs for unemployed Nigerians.
He frowned at the huge sums spent by Nigeria on the importation of food items that could be produced locally, stressing that the N1 trillion importation bill was not sustainable.
He recalled the pride of place that agriculture enjoyed in the country’s economy, noting however that the current reality in the global oil market left Nigeria with no option than to diversify into other productive sectors.