We have a dysfunctional economy —Sanusi (You are just finding out?)

Posted by admin CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria), Headlines Thursday, February 16th, 2012

EXCEPT there is a deliberate effort to create other sources of revenue, the level of poverty in the country will continue to accelerate.

This was the submission of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at the Murtala Mohammed Annual Memorial lecture held in Lagos on Wednesday.

Sanusi, who was the keynote speaker at the event, said that the country currently had a dysfunctional economy, stressing that there was the urgent need for a clear understanding of economic direction, structural adjustment that would create other avenues for further revenue.

He described as abnormal a situation where the economy was growing without impact on the average Nigerian, citing the recent report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) where over 100 million Nigerians are said to be living below the poverty level.

He decried the level of inequality where only a few Nigerians controlled the wealth of the country at the expense of others, noting that the issue of corruption and economic mismanagement must be tackled headlong.

The CBN Governor, who spoke on Banking Sector, Financial Reforms, Impact on the Nigerian Economy and Economic Development, stated that the current leadership of the CBN was building a new financial system that would play a catalyst role in the productive sector of the economy apart from monetary policies.

He gave the genesis of the crisis that almost crippled the banking sector and the strategies put in place to salvage the situation, stating that the crisis came to an end in September last year without any bank failing or depositors losing deposits.

“We are building a new banking model. The type that will contribute meaningfully to the economy, other than monetary policies,” he said.

On the capital market, he was optimistic that the market would recover fully in the next three years, stressing that the current slow recovery had nothing to do with monetary policies of the apex bank.

-Tribunewp_posts