By Kadiri Abdulrahman

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, says the apex bank is committed to ensuring financial system stability and improving access to credit.

Emefiele spoke in a recorded address to the 2022 edition of the apex bank’s Development Finance Department (DFD) Retreat in Abuja on Monday.

The theme of the retreat was “Financing for Sustainable Development in Nigeria.

The CBN governor said that the CBN had introduced several policies to improve access to credit for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) over the last few years, deepen support to the real sector and build a robust system infrastructure.

According to him, the CBN has taken steps to intervene in the Nigerian economy beyond the traditional macroeconomic mandate of ensuring financial system stability and maintaining strong reserves.

“It is clear in my mind that posterity will judge us for all actions taken to bridge the gaps through our interventions

“Those interventions are hinged at supporting economic activities, speeding up diversification of the production base and enabling infrastructural development in Nigeria,” he said.

He commended the staff of the DFD for their commitment and patriotism.

“Also speaking, the Governor of Jigawa, Muhammed Badaru, said that the sub-national governments had every reason to be thankful to the CBN and the DFD for efforts their support.

“We from the states have seen practical efforts by the DFD. Many states have testimonies of how the DFD has supported the states.

“In Jigawa, with the support of the CBN, we have been able to move rice production from 92, 000 metric tonnes per annum in 2015 to 1,050,000 metric tonnes per annum in 2021.

“We were able to move rice processing factories from one to seven, and thousands of rice mills.

“And, together with other policies, we were able to move our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from one trillion Naira in 2015 to N2.25trillion in 2021,” he said.

Also speaking, Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, said that for a growing nation, development finance was one of the most important functions of the central bank.

According to him, this has been demonstrated in the last seven years by the CBN.

“The development finance function is essentially a national security function, because it deals with the failures of externalities and all other challenges brought to bear by dislocations in the international community ” he said.

Mr Yila Yusuf, Director, DFD, said that the department had been at the forefront of food security for Nigeria in recent times, through a plethora of programmes and initiatives led by Emefiele.

Yusuf said that the country offered good opportunities for growth.

He added that the task of enabling food security, stimulating finance to the real sector and catalysing towards inclusive economic growth required serious efforts.

“The CBN has been at the forefront to ensure that we achieve food security and stimulate growth, in collaboration with other fiscal authorities.

“The DFD has also been fighting to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on food import and reduce the draining of our foreign exchange.

“The department has taken steps to stem imported inflation stimulate local production and diversify the economy away from oil to the real sector,” he said. (NAN)