A financial expert, Dr Boniface Chizea, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the re-appointment of Mr Godwin Emefiele as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
TBI Africa said he gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
Chizea, Chief Executive of BIC Consultancy Services, said the re-appointment of Emefiele was a welcome idea, saying it will ensure the sustainability of all policies that were embarked upon during his first tenure.
NAN reports that Emefiele has been Governor of the CBN since June 3, 2014.
He had earlier served as Chief Executive officer and Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc.
Chizea said: “It is the best news for the country because we don’t want someone to come and experiment. We commend the president for Emefiele’s re-appointment because it is a good development for the country.
“It’s like the best news coming out of this time. I say so because we have some economic stability now, everything is moving in the right direction and we don’t want any more experiments.”
According to him, the country has witnessed several positive developments through Emefiele’s decisions in his first tenure.
The BIC Chief Executive said such decisions included tight forex control that led to banning of 43 items, Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) to create economic linkage between smallholder farmers and large-scale processors.
NAN reports the ABP is meant to increase agricultural output, and significantly improve capacity utilisation of processors.
The ABP helps to increase banks’ financing to the agricultural sector, reduce agricultural commodity importation and conserve external reserves, increase capacity utilisation of agricultural firms, create new generation of farmers, entrepreneurs and employment.
Others include deepen the cashless policy and financial inclusion, reduce the level of poverty among smallholder farmers, assist rural smallholder farmers to grow from subsistence to commercial production levels.
“The governor has done well in his first term. It’s like a ruling team and you don’t change a winning team. God has blessed the man and he is winning.
“Since 1999, nobody had been able to get a second term as governor but he has gotten it. So, it is a remarkable development,” he added.
He advised the CBN boss to work toward ensuring single exchange rate and look into the importers and exporters window to see if there was any way it could be improved.
Chizea said Emefiele could also look at the areas the bank was putting money as intervention funds for national development to ensure it justified the purpose.
Besides, he said the bank, under his watch still needs to aim at reducing the inflation rate to single digit inspite of its consistent decline.
The financial expert suggested a single digit that ranges between six to nine per cent, saying this target could be attained in no distant future.
