We must stop decline of economy under your leadership – Emefiele tells Buhari

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Monday told President Muhammadu Buhari that the steady decline of the nation’s economy must be put to a stop, under his leadership.

Emefiele spoke at the official launch of Nigeria’s digital currecy, eNaira, at the presidential villa, Abuja.

He warned that Nigeria cannot continue to fritter away her foreign currency reserves on cheap imports and currency speculators, adding, “We must return to an employment-led growth anchored on productivity.”

Said the CBN Governor: “Mr. President, as you make ground breaking reforms, there have been continuing debate on the true value of the Naira. Rather than worry today on the direction of the exchange rate, let us take a step back and analyse how we got here in the first place.

”Please recall that since the advent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986, and the introduction of the Second Tier Foreign Exchange (SFEM) market, the Naira has been on a one-way free fall from parity to the US Dollar in 1984 to over N410/USD today.

”Some 35 years later, we have not been able to achieve the many promises and objectives of that programme.

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”Instead, what we have seen is widespread import dependency, which has wiped out most of our production and manufacturing bases and exported all our jobs in the process.

”What has happened to the massive textile factories across our nation such that we import almost all cotton products when we are rich in cotton?

”What has happened to our vehicle assembly plants across the nation such that we import most vehicles and have become a massive dumping ground for dying second-hand vehicles?

”What has happened to our rubber plantations through which we made the best tyres and rubber products in the world? What has happened to our groundnut pyramids? What has happened to our Cocoa farms? What has happened to our palm oil mills?

”Under your leadership, Mr. President, we must stop this decline for good! We must return to massive homemade production; we must get our people working again. We must create the economic environment for massive domestic production and significant non-oil exports.

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”As custodians of your national reserves, let me first assure you that there is no cause for alarm. Our FX reserves are strong and indeed getting stronger by the day, crossing the 40 billion USD mark, and is one of the highest in Africa – and growing.

”But we cannot fritter our reserves away on cheap imports and currency speculators. We must return to an employment-led growth anchored on productivity and rewarding producers of local goods, services, innovation and new technologies.

”If you consume cheap imports and export our jobs, we will make you pay dearly; but if you produce locally – with little or no foreign inputs beyond machinery, we will support you, and the markets will reward you abundantly,” he said.

The CBN governor also commended President Buhari for making history with the launch of the eNaira – the first in Africa and one of the earliest around the world.