The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has stressed the need for banks to consider infrastructure financing  to speed up the recovery of the economy which he expects to grow by 2 per cent by the end of the first quarter of next year.

Emefiele, in his remarks at the annual Bankers Conference in Lagos at the weekend, noted that Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million, should have a well-diversified economy that is not reliant on global oil prices.

According to him, a well-built infrastructure system, comprising hard infrastructure such as roads and ports, and soft infrastructure such as broadband penetration, can have a multiplier effect on growth by enabling the expansion of business activities in the country.

To him, “Nigeria with a population of over 200 million people in spite of the talents and resources both human and natural resources that we have in the country came on its knees because countries refused to export medicine and even food to us.

“Nigeria should be a country with a well-diversified economy where we should not be sneezing because price of oil has come down. We should be a country, given the abundance of natural resources that should not catch cold when crude prices drop.”

With the decline in revenues due to federal and state government as a result of the drop in crude oil prices,he said, alternative ways of funding infrastructure are critical to generate sustained economic growth, adding that, , the cost of logistics is often seen as a significant impediment to the growth of businesses in the country.

“We believe that a well-structured infrastructure fund can act as a catalyst for growth in the medium and the long run. The support of the banking community will be important in achieving this objective,” he stressed.

Whilst assuring that the monetary and fiscal authorities are alive to their responsibilities to restore the economy back to recovery, he stressed that there is the need to find ways to insulate the economy from the impact of these shocks through diversification efforts.

He said: “with sustained implementation of our intervention measures, we do expect that the Nigerian economy could emerge from the recession by the first quarter of 2021. We also expect that growth in 2021 would attain 2 per cent. 

“However, downside risks remain, as restoration of full economic activities, particularly in service related sectors, remains uncertain until a COVID vaccine is produced and made available to millions of people across the world.”

On the foreign exchange, he said, despite the exit of portfolio investors, activities in the foreign exchange market, particularly, in the Investors and Exporters window have peaked in some cases close to $200 million daily and an average of $150 million, as a result of CBN measure to sanitise activities in the forex market.

Noting that, with the external reserves currently above $35 billion and sufficient to cover over eight months of import of goods and services, Emefiele said, there is no cause for alarm. He, however, appealed to economic analysts that; “in the course of conducting their analysis of the Nigerian economy, they should realize that their public comments particularly if they are alarmist, create panic in our environment. 

“We cherish their counsel but urge that they be more constructive in their pungent criticisms, which could hamper our efforts to return our country and economy back to recovery. When you overdramatize the problem, you create panic that slows the process of recovery. We confess that the problem we face today is of a global dimension. The global economy is challenged, just like the Nigerian economy.”