By Ijeoma Wilfred
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has dismissed the narrative in some quarters that he and his team are the cause of the present economic downturn in the country.
Cardoso who made the clarification on Tuesday in Abuja during his maiden meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) however said that rather than being responsible for the problems,he and his team having met a very difficult situation are working hard to normalise it
” I think it’s very important for Nigerians to understand that the Central Bank Governor,I and my team are not responsible for the woes that we have today,we are part of the solution.
“We are determined to ensure that we work hard to get out of the mess that Nigeria is in. We assumed responsibility in a time of crisis of confidence. There was a crisis of confidence and you may all want to go to bed and wish that crisis of confidence was not there but it was, and we can’t turn back the clock
” All we can do is do the difficult things to make a bad situation better and do believe that the efforts that we are making are beginning to bring back confidence because to be frank, without confidence in your business, you are not going to get far ” Cardoso’s response to a question that the CBN was responsible for the current economic problems of the country.
Nigeria at the moment grapples with inflation, forex crisis, and high cost of living triggered largely ,by the removal of petrol subsidy.
However ,the Apex bank boss said the NPC identified non-monetary factors driving inflation such as insecurity and infrastructure deficit and noted the role of fiscal policy in addressing the shortfall.
Meanwhile,the MPC has raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), from 18.75 percent to 22.75 percent.
The CBN governor said the new MPR is part of measures to tackle inflation in the country
Cardoso also disclosed that “the next meeting of the MPC will be held on the 25th and 26th of March, 2024,” he said.
Cardoso was appointed the governor of the CBN on 15 September 2023 four months after the suspension of Godwin Emefiele by President Bola Tinubu .
