BANYO TEMITAYO
VICE President Yemi Osinbajo has commended the Central Bank of Nigeria for its doggedness and foresight in the management of the nation’s economy, especially for taking it through the turbulence of two recessions within a short period.
The Vice President, while delivering a keynote address at a one-day summit organised by the Vanguard Newspapers in conjunction with the Bankers’ Committee, specifically praised the dexterity of the economic managers under the supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari for the proactive actions, which had successfully pulled the economy out of recession.
He noted that the “encouraging growth performance owes a great deal to the early actions of Mr. President, first in providing an initial stimulus and then, constituting the Economic Sustainability Committee and the Economic Sustainability Plan.”
Specifically, Osinbajo commended the initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the area of direct support and easier credit terms, in addition to pragmatic assistance which the Bank extended to individuals, households, small businesses and some specific sectors of the economy, all of which helped greatly.
On the economic outlook, Osinbajo noted that the growth rate of 0.11 per cent, though marginal, was very encouraging because it was a V-shaped recovery with a growth of 3.74 percentage points from the previous quarter.
He further commended law makers, policy makers and business leaders for the good performance in the face of the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He described this as not only cheering but also a demonstration of “what can be achieved as a nation if all of us work together with sincerity and sense of purpose towards achieving a common objective”.
He however advised that beyond the pandemic induced crisis, the next step in achieving lasting growth was to focus on productivity and value addition.
The Vice President opined that the country must encourage value addition in every sector of the economy.
He said, for instance in agriculture, focus must be on the processing of raw produce, “adding value means more jobs and the value chain makes more money and create multiplier effect in the economy.”
On the raging controversy over blockchain technology, particularly digital or cryptocurrency, the Vice President said that while he fully appreciated the strong position of the CBN, the Securities Exchange Commission and some of the anti-corruption agencies on the possible abuses of cryptocurrencies and their other well-articulated concerns, he was of the opinion that proper regulation might be a good option to explore.
He, therefore, called on both the monetary authorities and SEC to provide a robust regulatory regime that would address the concerns.
“It should be thoughtful and knowledge-based regulation, not prohibition in my view,” he said.
He further noted that the clarion call for prudence and care in adopting digital currency had been very well articulated by the regulatory authorities, adding that they must, however, act with knowledge and not fear.
He advised that the authorities must ensure that the country was in a position to benefit while safeguarding the adverse side effects or even possible criminal acts that might arise as a consequence of adopting any of these options.
In his address, the co-convener of the summit and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, pledged to adopt an accommodative monetary policy stance in 2021 in order to support economic growth in the country.
He expressed optimism that with the discovery and deployment of vaccines worldwide, 2021 would be a year of massive global recovery and Nigeria must not be left out.
