The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Godwin Emefiele has revealed that the country’s external reserve has risen from $33billion from March 2021 to $40billion in 2022 while adding that over twelve million jobs have been created by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
He stated this in Ado Ekiti during the 40th anniversary and convocation lecture of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti.
The CBN Governor who was represented by the Deputy Governor (Corporate Services), Mr. Edward Adamu revealed that laudable feats were achieved through the introduction of Anchor Borrowers Programme, AGSMEIS, loan intervention among others.
Emefiele who spoke on the topic ‘The Role of Central Banks in Managing Economic Downturns’ revealed that the intervention employed by CBN has significantly helped to restore the economy even after the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said, “Recently, we introduced the ‘100 for 100’ policy on production and productivity to support green field and brown fields projects that will increase local sourcing and utilization of raw materials to create more jobs and income for our people”.
Specifically, under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, we have disbursed N948 billion to 4,478,381 smallholder farmers who cultivated 5.2 million hectares of farmland across the country, thereby creating 12.5 million direct and indirect jobs.
Continuing, “Under our targeted credit facility, which was meant to help households and businesses that suffered significant losses during the pandemic, we have disbursed N368.79 billion to 778,000 beneficiaries comprising 648,052 households, and about 130,000 SMEs”
Speaking, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, the Most Reverend Felix Ajakaiye who expressed worry over the high rate of inflation suggested that there is need for the government to embark on people’s oriented economic policies to cushion the effect of inflation, adding that Nigerians must learn how to improve its productivity and consume its locally made materials.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
