The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it is committed to positioning Nigeria’s economy on a sustainable growth path and that no amount of blackmail will sway its focus on this agenda.
The apex bank, while making this clarification in the face of some vested interests’ plan to impugn its integrity, said it would not be deterred in its effort to steer the Nigerian economy away from recession due to the pervasive negative impacts of the COVID-19) pandemic on its broad spectrum.
The Bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, who gave the assurance in a statement on Wednesday, said the “bank had uncovered sinister plans by some persons with selfish interests in Nigeria’s economic and socio-political space to distract the CBN and discredit the institution through deliberate misinformation, complete fabrications and outright lies.”
He said that despite this, the Bank would continue to strive to ensure accretion to the external reserves to safeguard the international value of the Naira, in addition to ensuring no individual or institution circumvents the system.
According to the spokesperson, the Naira in the past three years had remained stable against other world currencies due largely to strict measures put in place by the apex bank to check cases of round-tripping.
Okorafor said the Bank, working with other relevant agencies of government, had equally curtailed the activities of economic saboteurs neck-deep in smuggling and other economic crimes.
While noting that those opposed to the policies of the CBN will not relent in their effort to undermine the Bank, he said its Board and Management remained resolute to the dictates of its enabling Act and would not be distracted by subjective criticisms from persons who do not mean well for the general good of the Nigerian people and the economy.
He recalled that the apex bank, under the leadership of the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had made patriotic efforts at promoting economic growth and development through its intervention programmes, particularly in the agricultural sector.
Okorafor said the interventions in the agricultural sector had led to the revamping of the value chains across over 10 agricultural commodities, including cotton, oil palm, fish, poultry, livestock and maize, among others.
