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Monday, June 24, 2019 / 12:01PM /
By Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor / Header Image Credit: pulse.ng
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen and thank you for your presence at this Press Briefing. You would all recall that on 05 June 2014; following my assumption of office as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, I addressed a similar gathering to share with you my vision for my first term in office.
1. It
is in the same vein that we have called you again today to briefly reflect on
our journey over the past 5 years, and outline our vision and policy
thrust for the next 5 years.
2. But before I begin my remarks, please permit me to thank the Almighty God for giving me the opportunity to continue to serve our country again . I would also like to thank President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) for not only re-appointing me, but also for his support and confidence in the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria over the past 4 years. I thank the Nigerian Senate as well for confirming my nomination. Finally, I thank the management and staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria, for their hard work and dedication, particularly at moments when the Central Bank and indeed the Nigerian people faced difficult economic conditions.
Whatever achievements the CBN recorded in addressing those difficult conditions, was indeed reflective of the collective efforts of the management and staff of this great institution.
3. In my remarks today, I will be speaking on our efforts towards promoting price and monetary stability, exchange rate stability, financial system stability as well as our efforts to spur growth through our development finance interventions. Thereafter, I will speak on my vision for the Central Bank of Nigeria over the next five years, which is primarily driven by the need to support continued growth and development of the Nigerian Economy.
4. You will recall that during my maiden address on June 5, 2014, I stated that my vision would be to ensure that the Central Bank of Nigeria is more people focused, as its policies and programs would be geared towards supporting job creation, reducing the high level of Treasury-Bill rates, improving access to credit for MSMEs, deepening our intervention program in the Agricultural Sector, building a robust payment system infrastructure that will help drive inclusion, in addition to key macroeconomic concerns such as exchange rate stability, financial system stability and maintaining a strong external reserve.
5. As is the case with most plans, although most of the goals we set were achieved, I would be the first to admit that everything did not happen as contemplated. The normalization of monetary policy in the United States and the over 60 percent drop in crude oil prices between 2014 and 2016, had significant adverse consequences on our economy and made us adjust our methods to ensure that we still implemented most parts of our vision. Given Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil revenues for close to 86 percent of our foreign exchange earnings and over 60 percent of government expenditure, the drop-in prices led to heightened inflationary pressures, depreciation of our exchange rate, significant drop in our external reserves, and eventually, a recession set in during the 2nd Quarter of 2016.
6. With concerted efforts by the monetary and fiscal authorities we implemented a series of measures which led to the recovery of our economy from the recession by the 1st Quarter of 2017. Building on these efforts, I am delighted to note that our external reserves have risen from $23bn in October 2016 to over $45billion by June 2019. Inflation has dropped from 18.72 percent in January 2017 to 11.40 percent in May 2019. Our CBN purchasing manufacturers index has risen for 26 consecutive months since March 2017, indicating continuous growth in the manufacturing sector, as a result of measures implemented by the CBN which has improved access to raw materials and finance for manufacturing firms. GDP growth has risen for seven consecutive quarters following the recession, and our exchange rate has appreciated from over N525/$1 in February 2017 at the BDC window to N360/$1. With improved inflow of foreign exchange, the exchange rate has remained stable around N360/$1 for the past 27 months.
7. Recovery Efforts
Part of the measures we deployed to support the recovery include tightening of the monetary policy rate in order to rein in inflation; we also created an Investors and Exporters Window which allowed exporters and investors to inflow and sell their foreign exchange at the prevailing market rate. In order to reduce our reliance on the importation of items which could be produced in Nigeria, we restricted access to foreign exchange on 43 items, while deploying our intervention funds to support growth and productivity in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. These measures helped to support the attainment of our monetary policy objectives such as a reduction in the inflation rate, stability in our exchange rate and improved accretion to our external reserves.
8. Financial System Stability
As some of you are aware, the drop-in commodity prices affected a good number of banks given their exposure to the oil and gas sector. Unfortunately, these resulted in an increase in Non- performing loans of our banks. As a result of risk management measures embarked upon by the CBN, capital adequacy and liquidity ratios of our commercial banks are now above the prudential level.
Capital Adequacy Ratio for the banking industry improved from 11 percent in June 2017 to over 16 percent in May 2019 and liquidity levels have also increased by over 20 percent within the same period. In addition, the ratio of non-performing loans in the banking system has reduced from 15 percent in June 2017 to 9 percent in May 2019, due to concerted efforts by the CBN and the DMBs, although more work is being done to moderate NPL levels to the maximum prescribed level of 5 percent. Our financial institutions are well positioned to perform their intermediation role, which will ultimately help in supporting the growth of our economy.
9. Access to Credit and Developmental Finance
As part of the goals set in 2014, we increased our development finance interventions in order to catalyze growth in critical sectors of the economy. Our objectives were driven by the need to increase investments by MSMEs as well as spur consumer spending, as these factors would have a positive impact on GDP growth and employment. Furthermore, our development finance efforts were driven by the need to reduce our reliance on revenues from crude oil.
10. At a point in our nation’s history, Nigeria survived on revenues from the non-oil sector, to the extent that we were a dominant exporter of agricultural produce into the global market. Some of these products include, Cocoa, Groundnuts, Cotton and Palm-Oil. Our focus in agriculture supported the raw material needs of our industrial sector and created employment opportunities for millions of Nigerians. Regrettably, the discovery of crude oil and the increasing reliance on crude oil revenues led to a severe downturn in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, while also exposing our economy to the vulnerabilities that normally accompany an increased dependence on a single commodity for survival. For example, if Nigeria had maintained its market dominance in the palm oil industry, which stood at 40 percent in the 70s, we would be earning above $20 billion annually from cultivation and processing of palm oil today.
This would have provided a sufficient buffer for our nation following the drop in crude oil prices. Our situation is further worsened by the unpatriotic activities of some unscrupulous individuals and businesses who embarked on massive smuggling and dumping of goods that can be produced in the country thus leading to the demise of our agricultural and manufacturing sectors and hence the attendant high level of unemployment.
11. Fellow Nigerians, we have a responsibility to reverse the current ugly trend where any external shock affecting oil producing countries bring us to our knees.
12. To correct this trend and as part of our intervention programs, we launched the Anchor Borrowers Program, which has improved access to finance for over 1m small holder farmers, who are leading our efforts to improve cultivation of agricultural commodities, such as rice, tomatoes, fish, cotton and palm oil. The Anchor Borrowers Program also enabled agro-processors and manufacturers to source their inputs from local sources, rather than relying on the importation of these items. We also deployed other intervention facilities such as the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme, and the Real Sector Support Fund. These funds were used to channel single digit interest loans through our Deposit Money Banks and other Participating Financial Institutions to beneficiaries to support improved growth in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The effectiveness of these interventions in supporting the growth of our local industries, has been supported by our FOREX restrictions on the importation of items that can be produced in Nigeria.
13. We also embarked on measures to discourage smuggling of restricted items into the country, by imposing restrictions on the use of financial institutions in Nigeria by identified smugglers, as their activities undermined the growth of our local industries. These measures are aiding our efforts to support local cultivation of goods in areas such as cotton, rice, palm oil etc.
14. We also sought to improve access to
credit for MSMEs given the critical role they play in supporting the growth of
our economy. Poor access to credit has been highlighted as a significant
constraint to the growth of MSMEs. Moreover, given the impact of the recession,
it was more important to restart the flow of credit to MSMEs to enable them
engage in productive activities that would support growth. As part of efforts
to support this objective, we created a N220bn MSME funds, which has been
critical in supporting the growth of MSMEs in the agriculture and manufacturing
sectors.
15. We set up the National Collateral Registry and supported the passage of legislation governing the activities of the National Collateral Registry and the Credit Bureaus. These measures have helped to encourage the flow of credit to SMEs by allowing them to provide movable assets as collateral in order to obtain finance from banks, relative to the previous process which required that they provide fixed assets. So far over N400 billion worth of assets have been registered in the collateral registry by MSMEs. The activities of the credit bureaus are also reducing the risk encountered by banks in lending to businesses, as it has helped to identify credit worthy borrowers.
These
two initiatives contributed to the improvement in Nigeria’s Doing Business
Scorecard in the World Bank’s 2017 Doing Business Rankings of 180 countries, as
Nigeria moved up by 24 points from 169 to 144.
16. Payment System
Conscious that over 40 percent of eligible Nigerians in 2015 lacked access to financial services, we embarked on a couple of steps to improve access to finance.
Through initiatives such as the Shared Agent Network Facility(SANEF) and the launch of our policy on Payment Service Banks, which enables non-banks to provide limited financial services, we sought to encourage the use of technological tools in improving access to finance for people who live in underserved parts of the country. We also set up a payment services management department solely dedicated to enabling the build-up of a robust payment systems infrastructure, while seeking to contain the risk to the financial system that could emerge from the use of digital channels. As a result of our efforts, the total volume of retail electronic payments has witnessed a threefold increase over the last five years. New financial access points are being created in parts of the North East and North West as a result of measures deployed by the Central Bank to extend financial services to the underserved in our rural communities.
17. Salary Bailout
The drop-in commodity prices and the resulting effects on government revenue, led to a severe drop in the earnings of most states in the country. Over 34 states incurred huge salary arrears and were unable to provide essential services, which led to the decision by the National Economic Council in June 2015, that the CBN work with Deposit Money Banks to provide support to state governments. In order to avert prolonged hardship in states, we provided an assistance program to states, which helped them to settle their overdue salary and pension obligations. These measures helped to ease some of the budget difficulties faced by state governments between 2015 – 2017.
It also provided enough cushion for states to begin to develop plans to generate revenue from alternative sources in an attempt to make the states economically viable.
18. Challenges
While these results are reassuring, I think it’s fair to state that our task of building a stronger economy is far from complete. The pace of GDP growth remains fragile and is below the rate of our annual population growth at 2.7 percent. The recovery of our economy from the recession has not resulted in a significant reduction in our unemployment rate. We are yet to see a substantial increase in credit to the private sector by our financial institutions.
The unexpected drop in crude prices given its impact on our economy also derailed our attempts at achieving some of the steps outlined in our vision such as bringing down the rate of T-Bills and in reducing the unemployment rate.
Our inability to address these challenges only served to reinforce our view that the CBN must continue to play an active role in supporting the growth of our economy, and redirect our emphasis on sectors that have the ability to support improved wealth and job creation for Nigerians such as the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
19. Downside Risk to Growth in the near to medium term
Beyond our domestic challenge of high unemployment and subdued growth, our economy is faced with 3 external events, which have the ability to affect our growth trajectory over the near to medium term. First, rising trade tensions between the United States and China, United States and Mexico and subdued growth in the Eurozone as well as other emerging economies such as China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey, are affecting the outlook for global growth in 2019 and 2020.The World Bank according to its latest report, projects that global growth will decline to 2.6 percent in 2019 from 3.0 percent in 2018, as a result of the above-mentioned factors.
20. The second external challenge that may
emerge from rising trade tensions and a potential slowdown in growth in
advanced and emerging economies, is the impact it could have on capital flows
to emerging markets. The risk of sudden stops and reversals of capital flows
has increased as some investors weigh the benefits of investing in safe assets
in advanced economies relative to assets in emerging markets.
Third, we are also
witnessing rising volatility in the crude oil market occasioned by the rapid
increase in the supply of shale oil by the United States, which has seen its
production rise from 9 million barrels in 2017 to over 12 million barrels
today. The rise in US production continues to put downward pressure on crude
oil prices, despite restrictions on crude oil output by OPEC members and
sanctions by the US on the purchase of crude oil from Iran and Venezuela.
21. Our Vision for the Next 5 years
Fellow Nigerians, few weeks ago, we held consultations with some banks and business leaders in the Private sector. We thank them immensely for their thought provoking ideas and counsel. We intend to sustain the pace of those consultations as this would act as barometer for measuring the progress being made in the implementation of our policies. Our assessment of the outcome of that deliberation shows that with concerted efforts, the challenges facing the country are easily surmountable.
Consequently, working closely with our fiscal authorities, we pledge to target a double digit growth by the next five years and at the CBN, we commit to working assiduously to bringing down inflation to single digit; while accelerating the rate of employment. Put succinctly, our priorities at the CBN over the next 5 years are the following; First, preserve domestic macroeconomic and financial stability; Second, foster the development of a robust payments system infrastructure that will increase access to finance for all Nigerians thereby raising the financial inclusion rate in the country; Third, continue to work with the Deposit Money Banks to improve access to credit for not only small holder farmers and MSMEs but also Consumer credit and mortgage facilities for bank customers. Our intervention support shall also be extended to our youth population who possess entrepreneurship skills in the creative industry.
This group deserve our encouragement. We shall also during this intervening period encourage our Deposit Money Banks to direct more focus in supporting the Education Sector. Fourth, grow our external reserves; and fifth, support efforts at diversifying the economy through our intervention programs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
We are confident that when implemented, these measures will help to insulate our economy from potential shocks in the global economy.
In my second term in office, part of my pledge, is to work to the best of my abilities in fulfilling these objectives.
22. Macroeconomic Stability
On Macro-Economic Stability, over the next 5 years, with a key emphasis on supporting improved GDP growth and greater private sector investment, we intend to leverage monetary policy tools in supporting a low inflation environment, while seeking to maintain stability in our exchange rate. As a result;
23. Exchange Rate Stability
We will continue to operate a managed float exchange rate regime in order to reduce the impact which continuous volatility in the exchange rate could have on our economy.
24. Financial System Stability
A resilient and stable financial system is imperative for continued growth of our economy given the intermediation role that financial institutions play in supporting the needs of individuals and businesses.
As a result,
25. Robust Payment System Infrastructure
An efficient payment system is vital to the effectiveness of monetary policy interventions.
It also helps in reducing the cost involved in payment for goods and services.
The Payment Services Management Department in the CBN will work to enable the buildup of a robust and secure payments infrastructure in Nigeria that is reliable and easy to access.
26. Targeted Development Finance
Building on the success of our Anchor Borrowers Program and other intervention programs geared towards supporting the growth of our agriculture and manufacturing sectors, and in keeping with the recent Presidential Directives, we intend to:
27. Financial Inclusion
Over the next five years, through initiatives and policy measures such as the Shared Agent Network (SANEF) and the payment service banks, we intend to broaden access to financial services to individuals in underserved parts of the country.
28. Access to Credit
Beyond our intervention programs, we are also working to encourage banks and financial institutions to lend from their balance sheet in order to support the growth of critical sectors of the economy, such as Agriculture, MSMEs and the Real Estate Sector. Greater emphasis on improving consumer spending and business investment by MSMEs is critical to sustainable double digit growth of the Nigerian economy.
This will help improve access to credit for farmers and MSMEs, and it will also support the growth of their respective businesses.
29. Unique Identification
30.
Lending to MSMEs
31. Consumer Credit
32. Mortgage Lending
33. Conclusion
I will like to conclude my remarks by stating that although these goals are onerous and tasking, the CBN will remain committed to fulfilling its mandated objectives of price and exchange rate stability. We will continue to work to safeguard the stability of our financial system, while supporting the development of a payment system infrastructure that will improve access to credit for all eligible Nigerians. Nevertheless, additional emphasis will be placed on supporting greater growth of our economy and in reducing unemployment, through targeted interventions in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
Over
the next five years, this will be the task for the Central Bank of Nigeria
under my leadership, and we intend to do our very best to achieve these
objectives.
I
thank you for your attention.
Godwin I. Emefiele
Governor
Central
Bank of Nigeria
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