The Nigeria’s private sector leaders including Aliko Dangote,Africa’s richest man/owner of Dangote Group, Jim Ovia, businessman/founder of Zenith Bank, Atedo Peterside, banker/entrepreneur, and others gathered on Saturday in Lagos to set agenda for Godwin Emefiele, who was reappointed for a second term as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor.
At the consultative roundtable with the CBN governor, titled ‘Going Fir Growth’, these leaders pointed some key focus areas that will help stimulate growth in the economy.
These areas are infrastructure, specifically power, import substitution, consumer credit, mortgage, financial inclusion and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), among others.
In his welcome address, Emefiele said the roundtable allowed the organised private sector, not only to air their views but also to provide some inputs into the roadmap to be unveiled in due course for achieving greater Growth and Job creation in Nigeria.
“Our goal in participating in this roundtable session today is to generate valuable insights from key stakeholders on the role Monetary Policy authorities could play in formulating and implementing policy measures that will support improved economic growth, as well as the creation of jobs in Nigeria both in the near and long run”, Emefiele said.
He said the CBN took a number of actions in the last five years to support the growth of the economy in the face of the challenges that confronted the nation, following the massive drop in crude oil prices between 2015 and 2017.
These measures, he said have helped in achieving the macroeconomic stability seen in the country today, with inflation trending downwards to 11.37 percent from 18.72 in January 2017; exchange rate stability at current levels with considerable convergence, and foreign reserves build up to current level of over $45 billion compared to $23 billion in October 2016.
