SAN FRANCISCO, May 25, (THEWILL) – The Senate has summoned Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, and Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to brief it on the monetary and fiscal policies adopted by the government to salvage the economy.
The summons was agreed upon following a motion, on Wednesday, by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Bassey Akpan, in his lead debate titled: “Urgent need to address the present economic state of the nation.”
Akpan cited a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which show a drastic drop in the economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicating that unemployment rate had risen to 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016 from 10.4 percent in the last quarter of 2015.
“The declining GDP and unemployment, besides the current high inflation rate, clearly shows that the economic policies are not achieving desired impact and requires an urgent review,” he said.
“The current economic contraction is the first major drastic slump since June 2004, which according to the CBN is a 12-year-low, while the World Bank position is that it is a 21-year-low.
“The CBN had in March 2016 deployed a contracting monetary policy increasing benchmark interest rate from 11 percent to 12 percent and cash reserve ratio from 20 percent to 22.5 percent.
“The question is: why contracting monetary policy instead of expansionary monetary policy of boosting economic activities at such a critical time as this.”
Seconding the motion, Biodun Olujimi, Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate, expressed dissatisfaction that there was no visible economic policy in the country adding that the CBN Governor and the Finance Minister should come with an economic blueprint and mode of implementing palliatives in view of the new price of petrol.
Story by David Oputah
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