Abdulwahab Isa 
..Lauds CBN policy reforms
…Retains Nigeria’s 2024 growth forecast at 3.3%
The World Bank said Nigeria experienced the best economic reform between the years 2003 and 2007. Within intervals of the four years, the World Bank observed the country implemented fiscal and exchange rate reforms that were unprecedented, with transparency brought in the recording and allocation of oil revenues.
Senior Vice President, World Bank Group, Mr. Indermit Gill, stated this at the Nigeria Economic Summit (NES), which began yesterday in Abuja. He noted with regret that the majority of Nigerian poor and young citizens were trapped in suffering and acute poverty.
According to Gill, within the four years he referenced, the Nigerian government renegotiated its Paris Club debt, “which had created this debt overhang that was choking the economy.
And the payoff was immense and immediate. For the first time in its history, Nigeria notched a BB-sovereign credit rating”.
The bank observed that the category of suffering Nigerians wanted good schools, decent colleges, good health care, good jobs, and safe conditions that would have allowed them to make full use of their potential and are regrettably denied by high inflation, which it said hurts everyone today.
While applauding the ongoing reforms of the current administration, he said the reforms would boost the country. “Nigeria is an important country at a very critical juncture, and I would rather be here today than anywhere else.
So, I was asked to talk about the most pressing challenges affecting Nigeria and Africa’s economic development and growth. So, I am going to focus on Nigeria for a very simple reason: because Africa goes as Nigeria goes.
“Given its size and significance, and the success of Nigeria’s reforms that are happening today, it will give a big boost to countries across the continent. And because the whole world has a stake in Africa’s future, the whole world needs to pay attention to what Nigeria is trying to do today.
“The whole world is paying attention. So, as I speak, there is a lot of suffering in all sections, in all parts of Nigerian society, especially among the poor and the young.
They want good schools, they want decent colleges; they want decent healthcare, good jobs, and safe conditions that allow them to use this potential, to make full use of this potential. But high inflation is hurting everyone today.
It is hurting them the most,” he said. He lauded the Central Bank of Nigeria for its recent policy reforms, saying “the central bank has had to hike its policy rate by a huge 850 basis points—that’s almost 90 percentage points—in the last nine months to boost confidence.
“The Central Bank financing of fiscal deficits has finally ended, and Governor Cardoso has been putting Nigeria, or helping to put Nigeria, on the right course.
This is only the beginning. Nigeria will need to stay the course for at least another 10 or 15 years to transform this economy. And it will become an engine of growth in sub-Saharan Africa, and it will have to transform subSaharan Africa.”
To be continued online
