Nigeria Economy | |
Nigeria Economy | |
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Friday, February 26, 2021 10:25 PM / by CBN / Header Image Credit: @NigeriaGov
...calls for regulation of blockchain technology
The Vice
President, professor Yemi Osinbajo has given the Central Bank of Nigeria thumbs
up for its doggedness and foresights in the management of nation's economy,
especially through the turbulence of two recessions within a short period.
The Vice
President while delivering a keynote address at the one-day summit organized by
the Vanguard newspapers in conjunction with the Bankers' committee specifically
praised the dexterity of the economic managers under the supervision of
President Muhammadu Buhari for the proactive actions which have successfully pulled
the economy out of recession.
He stated
that the "encouraging growth performance owes a great deal to the early actions
of Mr. President, first in providing an initial stimulus and then, constituting
the Economic Sustainability Committee and the Economic Sustainability Plan".
Specifically,
professor Osinbajo commended the initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria in
the area of direct support and easier credit terms in addition to pragmatic
assistance which the Bank extended to individual s, households, small
businesses and some specific sectors of the economy, all of which helped
greatly.
On the
economic outlook, Professor Osinbajo noted that the growth rate 0.11 per cent,
though marginal, it is very encouraging because it's a V-shaped recovery with a
growth of 3.74 percentage points from the previous quarter.
He further
commended law makers, policy makers and business leaders for the good
performance in the face of the negative impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. He described
that as not only cheering but a demonstration of "what can be achieved as a
nation if all of us work together with sincerity and sense of purpose towards
achieving a common objective".
He however
advised that beyond the pandemic induced crisis, the next step in achieving
lasting growth is to focus on productivity and value addition.
The Vice
President opined that the country must encourage value addition in every sector
of our economy like in agriculture, focus must be on the processing of raw
produce, adding value means more jobs and the value chain makes more money and
create multiplier effect in the economy.
On the
raging controversy over blockchain technology particularly, digital or
cryptocurrency the Vice President said that while he fully appreciates the
strong position of the CBN, the Securities Exchange Commission, SEC, and some
of the anti-corruption agencies on the possible abuses of cryptocurrencies and
their other well-articulated concerns he is of the option that proper
regulation may be a good option to explore. He therefore, call on both the
monetary authorities and SEC to provide a robust regulatory regime that
addresses the concerns.
As such, "It
should be thoughtful and knowledge-based regulation, not prohibition in my
view. He further noted that the clarion call for prudence and care in adopting
digital currency and this has been very well articulated by our regulatory
authorities, but we must act with knowledge and not fear.
He advised
that Authorities must ensure that the country is in a position to benefit while
safeguarding the adverse side effects or even possible criminal acts that may
arise as a consequence of adopting any of these options.
In his
address, the co-convened of the summit and the Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, pledged to adopt accommodative monetary policy
stance in 2021 in order to support economic growth in the country.
He expressed
optimism that with the discovery and deployment of vaccines worldwide, 2021
would be a year of massive global recovery and Nigeria must not be left out.
Secondly,
Emefiele cautioned that we must prevent a resurgence in COVID-19
related cases. Thirdly, we must ensure that a significant number of our
population is significantly vaccinated and also improve foreign exchange
inflows into our country," he added.
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