BY DAUD OLATUNJI
ABEOKUTA — The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said high level corruption, inadequate infrastructure and rising unemployment, among others, in the country have been the bane of development.
The CBN also stated that in spite of the impressive macro-economic performance, it has failed to translate to development.

The Deputy‑ Governor (Operation), Mr. Tunde Lemo stated this in his speech presented, weekend, at Egba Economic Summit in Abeokuta, the OgunState capital.
According to Lemo, the CBN had intervened in the challenges by providing N300 billion power and airline intervention fund and another N200 billion commercial agriculture credit scheme with a view to boosting the economy.
He, however, lamented that despite the efforts to improve the economy the statistics of unemployment was alarming, saying, “four million Nigerians enter labour market annually.
“In spite of the impressive macro economic performance, it did not translate into development as unemployment is still huge.
“The challenges are that Nigeria’s development is over-dependent on oil, with high inflation, huge import bills, and high level corruption.
“National unemployment statistics shows that the population size is 164 million and people between 15 and 35 years are 60 per cent while youth unemployment of Nigeria workforce is 30 per cent.
“Unemployment in rural areas is 23 per cent and unemployment in urban areas is 17 per cent, unemployment growth rate per annum is 16 per cent.”
Meantime, the CBN has said the Ogun State revenue profile stood at N200 billion, saying the state got 67 per cent as statutory allocation from the Federal Government while the Internally Generated Revenue contributes 33 per cent.
It stated that Ogun State is the 16th most populous state and ran 100 per cent non‑oil economy.
According to the Deputy Governor of the CBN, OgunState ranked 9th in terms of Gross Domestic Product in the country and 5th in South West in terms of the number of states with macro small medium enterprises.
“In spite of the rich endowments, the state has, however, not attained the desired level of economic development,” he said.

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