The newly appointed governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, says the economic policy proposals of President Bola Tinubu’s administration can achieve a GDP of $1Tr in eight years.
Cardoso made the declaration in Marrakesh, Western Morocco on Thursday on the side-line of the on-going 2023 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings.
The CBN governor said efforts were on-going to refocus the CBN for overall economic growth, adding that government would identify fiscal reforms and growth targets that would achieve the feat within eight years.
He said that in a study of emerging markets, macro-economic indices pointed to Nigeria’s economic trajectory, given the faithful implementation of the proposed economic reforms.
He explained that the study followed a review of economies like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICS, and Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey, MINT, countries, with similar populations and developmental characteristics as Nigeria.
“In economies bigger than 1.0 trillion dollars, these indicators include moderate inflation, sizable foreign reserves, and the capacity to quickly rebound from a cyclical economic downturn.
“Given this, a refocused CBN will better serve Nigeria through monetary policy interventions and advisory roles that sustain implementation of the administration’s fiscal proposals,’’ Cardoso said.
He said also that the lines between monetary policy and fiscal intervention should be clearly delineated, and the CBN needed to be pulled back from its development financing initiatives to more advisory roles.
“Much had been made of past CBN forays into development financing, such that the lines between monetary policy and fiscal intervention have blurred.
“In refocusing the CBN to its core mandate, there is a need to pull it back from direct development finance interventions into more limited advisory roles that support economic growth.
“The bank should act as catalyst in the propagation of specialised institutions and financial products that support emerging sectors of the economy.
“It should facilitate new regulatory frameworks to unlock dormant capital in land and property holdings,’’ he said.
Mr Cardoso listed other roles of the CBN to include accelerating access to consumer credit and expansion of financial inclusion for the masses.
