Nigeria’s Central Bank, Finance Ministry And Budget Office To Harmonise Policies For Economic Recovery

For the first time since the Nigeria’s present administration assumed office, both the monetary and fiscal authorities met over the weekend to find a common ground on a number issues to move the economy forward.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN represented the monetary authorities, while the fiscal authorities included the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning as well as Trade and Investment.

The came together over the weekend to harmonise their policy perspectives towards building a monetary and fiscal collaboration to reverse the negative trend in the economy.

Last September, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, and CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, canvassed opposing views on the best way to grow the country’s economy out of recession in a manner financial experts and economists saw as a crack in President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic direction.

While Mrs. Adeosun wanted a cut in the benchmark interest rate by banks then at 14 per cent to support government stimulus plan to borrow cheap funds locally and boost productive activities to bail out the economy, Mr. Emefiele thought otherwise, opting for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to retain same.

The apparent lack of consensus among members of the government economic team was blamed on the absence of cohesion on the way to guide the economy out of recession.

But, speaking at the opening of the two-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) retreat at the CBN Corporate Headquarters in Abuja on Friday, Mr. Emefiele underscored the need for the country’s monetary and fiscal authorities to collaborate and harmonize standpoints to ensure the rapid development of the economy.

The retreat was on the theme: “Pathway to Price Stability Conducive to Economic Growth.”

Mr. Emefiele, who also chairs the MPC, noted that for the retreat to record such a large attendance of the fiscal authorities showed a commitment to tackle the current serious economic challenges the country was facing.

The CBN said finding a sustainable solution to the current economic problems required a broad participation of representatives from the fiscal side of the divide.

He said the retreat, as a brainstorming session, would provide perspectives on certain MPC decisions and close the gap on the coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities to chart a common course and decisions to develop the economy. Read more on this here.