By Ebriku John Friday
Civil societies under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society Groups, CCSGs, Wednesday, hailed President Muhammadu Buhari, and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, over impact made in agriculture, youth empowerment and others.
The statement was made in an address titled ‘Solidarity Rally in Support of President Muhammadu Buhari and CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele on the Achievements Recorded in Their Efforts to Stabilise the Economy’ jointly signed by President, CCSG, Etuk Bassey Williams, Secretary, CCSG, Abubakar Ibrahim, and Public Relations Officer, CCSG, Femi Osabinu, which was read by the group’s President, Etuk Bassey at the rally held in Abuja.
According to Bassey the Buhari-led administration is doing its best to ensure the economy continues to survive despite economic downturn occasioned by the unstable low price of crude oil in the international market, advent of COVID-19 pandemic and the multifaceted insecurity challenges facing the country.
He said: “The achievements by the Government under the leadership of President Buhari cannot be possible without the support of the able lieutenants appointed to head the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the able leadership of the Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who has made efforts to turn around the negative indices of the economy as a result of good policies.
“We applaud the recorded achievements in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMWs), the small farm holders. We also appreciate his effort towards assisting our industries to meet-up with international standard in the quality of goods produced for export.
“Today, many Nigerians have benefitted from wonderful policies of the CBN such as the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP), Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS), the Agri-business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS). These policies have impacted positively in the lives of many Nigerians. Jobs have been created and millions of Nigerians are happy and grateful.
“The Anchor Borrowers Programme that has increased yield per hectare and food security in the country is a plus to the CBN. This policy among others is in support of the drive by the Government to diversify the economy and stimulate growth in the agriculture sector.
“It is without doubt that the efforts of the CBN in ensuring protection of Bank customers, effective supervision of Deposit Money Banks and Other Financial Institutions; and deepening of financial inclusion through an effective banking and payments system in recent times has yielded positive results.”
However, he alleged economic sabotage going on in the forex market, which has negatively impacted the economy.
“We condemn a situation where the disparity between the official bank-exchange rates for Dollar/Naira will be too high, thereby creating inflation.
“We applaud the sincere efforts to salvage the Naira, the CBN stop of sales of Forex to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators, who exploit and artificially inflate Dollar/Naira exchange. We applaud this move to discourage illicit financial flow, BDC racketeering and indiscriminate round tripping.
“We hereby call on the Governor to suspend the activities of the BDC operators in totality and supply money to the commercial banks.
“We also demand that a monitoring committee that comprises of EFCC, CBN and NFIU be set up to check and arrest BDC operators who go to the banks to buy off the dollar using fake application.
“We also applaud the CBN introduction of e-naira, we are confident that this policy will stimulate economic activities that will result into jobs and wealth creation.
He also called on Nigerians to support the government and key into it.
“Based on the recorded achievements listed above, we this call for more support to the leadership of the country and the leadership of the CBN”, he added.
