Emefiele told the Post-Election Economic Agenda Conference, organized by Businessday newspaper on Thursday in Lagos that the Nigerian government needed to diversify its revenue base and reduce the dependence on direct proceeds from crude oil sales.
“The forex prohibition policy is to make local production competitive and sustain it as an alternative. Those who want to make here a dumping ground are still at large. When we make policies, we must work hard to make them a success,” he said.
The report by the Nigerian Television Authority on Friday said that Emefiele ruled out reducing the 14 percent interest rate for now in view of the apex bank’s post-election agenda that has projected a rebound in inflation to 12 percent.
The governor warned that the issues that led to the economic crisis of 2015 to 2017 were still very much around, and called for vigilance to domestic and global developments and increase of the country’s policy buffers, including fiscal measures and external reserves.
According to him, the bank will sustain its development interventions by ensuring cheap financing to boost local production of priority goods in critical sectors of the economy as anti-dote to reliance on importation.
Speaking generally on the economy, Emefiele projected that the Nigerian economy would grow by 3 percent in 2019 as against 1.93 percent achieved in 2018.
He assured that the apex bank would continue to maintain its tight monetary policy stance to rein in inflation, which he said was expected to rise to 12 percent in the course of the year before moderating.
Emefiele expressed optimism that the country’s Balance of Payments would remain positive in the short-term and that the current account balance can improve further if oil prices continued to recover.