Emefiele Unveils 10-Point Agenda For CBN

The new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday unveiled his blueprint for the economy stating that he would, through his vision for the country create a central bank that is professional, apolitical and people focused.

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Emefiele while addressing journalists at the apex bank headquarters in Abuja, said he would reposition the apex bank into an institution that would dissipate its energies into building  a resilient financial system that will serve the growth and development needs of the country.

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He said, 'My vision for the bank would be anchored on 10 agenda, which would help the apex bank reduce poverty, create jobs and ensure macro economic stability.

'The agenda are to pursue a gradual reduction in key interest rates and include unemployment rate in monetary policy decisions; maintain exchange rate stability and aggressively shore up foreign exchange reserves; and strengthen risk-based supervision mechanism of Nigerian banks to ensure overall health and banking stability.'

Others according to him, are to build up sector-specific expertise in banking supervision to reflect loan concentration of the banking industry; to consider and announce measures to effectively address the anomaly in macro-prudential space;abolish fees associated with limits on deposits and reconsider ongoing practice in which fees associated with limits on withdrawals accrue to banks alone.

The rest are to introduce a broad spectrum of financial instruments to boost specific enterprise areas in agriculture, manufacturing, health and oil and gas; establish Secured Transaction and National Collateral Registry that will improve access to information on borrowers and assist lenders to make good credit decisions; build resilient financial infrastructure that will serve the need of the lower end of the market, especially those without collateral as well as renew vigorous advocacy for the creation of commercial course for quick adjudication of almost and related offences.

Punch.