Cbn Explains How Nigeria Got Into Recession

BEVERY HILL, December 01, (THEWILL) – The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has explained that the present economic recession in the country, aside been caused by the fall in oil prices and the Niger Delta militancy, can also be attributed to the Nigerians' taste for foreign goods without having a culture for exports.

CBN's Director of Policy, Mr. Moses Tule, who made this known in Abuja on Tuesday at the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN roundtable organised to discuss the economic challenge, added that the financial downturn has persisted due to application of wrong prescription by non-professionals.

His words, “Some came in as doctors into the macro-economic management and are giving the tools of medical doctors to advise on how to solve the problem of recession.

“Some came in as carpenters and they are using carpentry tools to advise on the problems of economic recession; some came in as engineers and they are using their tools to advise on how to address economic recession.

“They have not allowed the professionals to do their jobs. They have not allowed the professional to provide the direction.”

Tule pointed out that the Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, had, since early last year, consistently warned that the nation will slip into recession if urgent steps are not taken but that the warnings were not heeded.

On how the country came to the present economic bend, he said: “Oil prices are down. Not only are oil prices down, the Niger Delta Avengers have blown up oil producing facilities and export facilities, severally.

“When they blew the Forcados, it took government six months to fix Forcados. That was a loading bay. And after fixing it, they went back and blew it again.

“So we have oil prices and production going down. The implication is that foreign exchange earnings are going down, but unfortunately, our import expenditure is not going down. It is still in the region of N976 billion, monthly.”

While decrying Nigerians' penchant for imported goods and an absence of export culture, the CBN chief pointed out that sitting down and blaming the apex bank for the falling value of the Naira was futile.

According to him, “If we want to regain our place, how did we get here? We must address that question.

“The moment we began to prefer imported goods to our domestically produced goods, we laid the foundation and built the superstructure to where we are now. This is a conscious choice. Every country makes the choice where it wants to be. This is what we chose for ourselves as a country.”