Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has described his job as the second most difficult on the globe.
This is as he said the Federal Government’s reform and other actions are paying off.
Cardoso spoke Sunday in Abuja at the opening of the 2024 First Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).
The event was themed, “Synod on Synodality: Areas of Concern for the Church in Nigeria “
“I will continue to remember that in spite of (my job) the second most difficult job on the face of the planet, this is really something that remains very memorable,” the CBN governor said.
Cardoso, who was the Chairman of the occasion, expressed optimism that despite all the difficulties, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“As a result of some of the recent reports from the CBN, over the course of the last week, about $1.8bn came into the markets.
“As long as the country can sustain a positive trajectory, Nigeria will get out of its economic woes and the foreign exchange market will begin to moderate itself,” he said.
He said the apex bank will soon hold the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, where very critical decisions will be made to continue making the economy more investor-friendly.
Cardoso said an attempt to merge the official rate with the black market rate had been made, adding that the difference between the two is now significantly lower.
“There is a positive outlook on that. The positive outlook comes from the fact that a series of reforms have been made by the federal government and the Central Bank, which are now paying off in such a way that international investors are coming back in again,” he said.
He said one of the problems of economic advancement in Nigeria is finding ways to move as a country beyond being a consumer nation and shelf appetite for foreign goods.
“You have got to move as a country beyond being a consumer nation. And it is something that we as Nigerians have been talking about for so long, but really, we’ve not been able to actualize it.
“The other thing, of course, is to moderate appetite for foreign goods. And that’s closely related to what I had said earlier with respect to becoming a producer nation, because at the end of the day, many of the things you see and many of the things that bother a lot of people with respect to foreign exchange are all essentially down to demand and supply,” Cardoso said.