31 October 2015, Abuja – Faced with persistent fall in crude oil prices, Nigeria’s main foreign exchange earner, the Central Bank of Nigeria , CBN, and the fiscal authorities are now meeting to restrategise on how to stave the nation’s economy away from a looming recession.
The Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, told the gathering of Accountants-General of the Federation, AGF, Alh. Ahmed Idris, top officials of his organization, those from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office, and tax authorities in Abuja, yesterday, that both monetary and fiscal authorities must restrategise and work in a coordinated manner to surmount the current economic challenges facing the country.
The meeting was under the Fiscal Liquidity Assessment Committee, FLAC.
His words, “The knock on effect of the recent global macroeconomic shores has accentuated the urgent need for Nigeria to strengthen its economic fundamentals and attain self sufficiency so as to ensure macroeconomic stability.
“In particular, the fall in oil prices has negatively affected revenue projections and in the short term has amplified exchange rate pressures due to a tapering of export proceeds.
“I wish to draw our attention to the principal objective of macroeconomic policy which is to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the context of macro stability.
“To achieve this, monetary and fiscal policies need to assiduously play their respective roles while collaborating to ensure that public expectations are harmoniously and effectively anchored.”
Mr. Emefiele who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Monetary Policy, Dr, Sarah Alade, observed that two the parties (monetary and fiscal authorities) must work together to come up with policies that would strengthen the economy’s fundamentals.
He added, “Policy coordination must entail commitments towards achieving the overall objectives of the nation’s macro-economic goals”, adding, “This event is to reflect on the recent outcomes and challenges facing the Nigerian economy. We will also use the opportunity to come out with ideas on how to restructure, rearrange and reinvent in order to diversify our economy and shift the Nigerian economy from the bases of strenuous factors'”, he said
He noted that the fall in price of oil and other commodities was not only diminishing the nation’s economic stability but also had the propensity to impair Nigeria’s progress in the short, medium and long term horizons.
According to Mr. Emwefiele, the principal objective of macro- economic policy remained to achieve a sustainable and inclusive economic growth in an environment of macro-economic stability and that the role of fiscal policy and monetary policy formulation is very important in order to achieve a sustainable macro-economic stability.
Earlier, the Director, Monetary Policy Department of the CBN, Mr Moses Tule, described the Fiscal Liquidity Assessment.
*Emma Ujah – Vanguard
