The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Lagos State Branch, has said there is a need for the nation’s economic managers to apply macroeconomic drivers as a way of getting the country out of its current economic challenges.
The institute said the nation’s external reserves could appreciate considerably if it encouraged local production and export, just as it advised the Federal Government to fix the power crisis to stimulate growth and expansion.
The Chairman, CIBN, Lagos State Branch, Mrs. Taiwo Ige, spoke at a news conference announcing the institute’s annual ‘Lagos Bankers’ Nite.’
According to the group, the annual event, tagged, ‘Repowering Nigerian economy: the strategic imperatives’, affords financial experts the opportunity to analyse the country’s economic challenges and proffer solutions.
The event attracts key players in the financial services industry and other sectors of the economy.
Ige said resuscitating the ailing economy required sound economic strategies that would put the country back on the growth path.
“There is a need to put economic strategies in place to prosecute successfully the ailing Nigerian economy so that it does not get worse than we are presently experiencing. We need a pragmatic approach to the economic realities we have found ourselves. We need to look inward,” she said.
“Economically, we know where we are going but how do we get there? Resolving our economic logjam is not the job of government alone; everybody must be involved. The average Nigerian propensity for foreign goods will have to be addressed.”
The First Vice Chairman of the branch, Mr. Kola Abdul, who noted that the foreign exchange market was being restructured, said in determining the right exchange rate, the principle of “cobweb analysis” would first play out.
He said, “It will move zigzag before it comes to a position we will see as the real value. We feel that we need to help the Federal Government to identify the fundamentals that must be addressed for the economy to be on a good stead.
According to the Second Vice Chairman of the branch, Mr. Peter Ashade, the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria alone is not sufficient to address the country’s economic crisis.
