An economist and Chief Economic Strategist in the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Ken Ife, has extolled the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN”s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), saying its introduction was timely and helped in averting food crisis in the country.
He was speaking during the 33rd Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors at the weekend, with the theme, “Policy Options for Economic Diversification: Thinking Outside the Crude Oil-Box,” organised by the CBN.
He said: “We would have been buying a bag of rice today at between N70,000 and N100,000, and if we didn’t have the intervention from CBN, it would not only have been only importing food, we would have had more people dying from hunger, poverty, and starvation in Nigeria than victims of conflict and covid-19 put together.”
On his part, Chief Executive Officer of Adedipe & Associates, Dr. Biodun Adedipe stressed the need for meritocracy and diversity in appointments while identifying MDAs that directly drive the economy and appoint proven professionals to lead them.
He advocated for the professionalisation of both the civil service and public service to address the current economic quagmire, stressing that doing so will extract value from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
“There is need to reduce the size of MDAs and pay well, align pay to productivity, retention in office, redeployment or exit must depend on performance and ensure accountability from the top leadership,” he advised.
The Director of Trade and Exchange Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Ozoemena Nnaji disclosed that the apex bsank was making encouraging progress in all fronts to pull the economy back on track.
Speaking on the diaspora remittances through the ‘Naira 4 Dollar Scheme’ Ozoemena disclosed that it stood at $2.4 billion the first eight months of 2022, a remarkable achievement from the previous year in 2021, which recorded $2.9 billion of cash flows.
Also, she revealed that the CBN was considering improving the scheme to have a more streamlined approach, which would enhance diaspora remittances in collaborations with other government parastatals.
Also speaking, a Professor of Economics and Capital Market, Uche Uwaleke called on the CBN to tinker with the scheme to increase its benefits and improve remittances into Nigeria by modeling it after the Pakistan model.