The Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Olayemi Cardoso, has hinted that one of the key targets of the current economic reforms by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration is to increase the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to $1 trillion in eight years.
Cardoso, who gave this hint on Thursday at the sidelines of the ongoing 2023 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings at Marrakesh, Morocco, said efforts were being made by the government to further support the CBN for improved roles in Nigeria’s economic growth.
He said: “In economies bigger than 1.0 trillion dollars, these indicators include moderate inflation, sizable foreign reserves, and the capacity to quickly rebound from a cyclical economic downturn.
“Given this, a refocused CBN will better serve Nigeria through monetary policy interventions and advisory roles that sustain implementation of the administration’s fiscal proposals”, Cardoso added.
This is even as he disclosed that the apex bank was determined to commit more efforts to the fulfilment of its core mandate, stressing “there is a need to pull the CBN back from direct development finance interventions into more limited advisory roles that support economic growth.”
To achieve this, the Acting Governor explained that the CBN was considering increasing private sector investment in housing, textiles and clothing, food supply chain, healthcare, and educational supplies by de-risking instrumentation.
The banker further clarified: “These verticals have huge demand patterns, with the potential for high local inputs and value retention, and can be the basis for rapid industrialization.
“With focused leadership and sustained reforms, it is expected that over time, the country will see gains open economic spaces, attract new investments, create employment, and give our hardworking and talented compatriots opportunity for a more prosperous future”, he added.
On the backlog of foreign exchange (FX) demand, Cardoso disclosed that the apex bank’s management was examining creative financing options for clearing the short to medium-term backlog and ensuring inflation and price stability.
According to him, the bank has to establish how much of the FX backlog is real and how much is given to speculation or hoarding as well as identify creative financing options for clearing the short to medium term backlog.
Cardoso pointed out that these problems needed in-depth review by the new CBN leadership team to determine what mechanisms are currently working, what can be tweaked or dispensed with and what new tools needed to be introduced.
