The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has disclosed plans by the apex bank to set up an International Financial Centre at the Eko Atlantic City in Lagos to be operational in the second quarter of 2022.

Emefiele explained that the facility is expected to serve as a hub for attracting domestic and external capital which is much-needed to strengthen the Nigerian economy post-COVID-19.

The CBN governor stated this in a keynote address he delivered at the 56th Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) annual dinner held in Lagos at the weekend.

“The International Finance Centre when fully operational in the 2nd quarter of 2022, will help to position Nigeria as a key destination for investment in Africa,” Emefiele added.

The CBN governor noted that a key challenge to supporting growth in key sectors of the economy was access to large pools of cheap investment capital, adding that over $100 trillion was being held by institutional investors in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

According to him, most of the funds were invested in low-yielding assets relative to high-yielding opportunities in Nigeria.

Furthermore, Emefiele noted that although uncertainties remained around the mutating Delta virus, prospects of a broad-based economic recovery in Nigeria were bright as efforts were being made to improve access to vaccines for Nigerians, in addition to measures aimed at implementing safety protocols to curb the spread of the virus.

He, however, pointed out that “our economic growth remains fragile, as our unemployment and inflation rate remains at levels that are not very supportive of growth. Second, continued implementation of our intervention efforts would need to be undertaken to sustain the recovery efforts and stimulate further growth of the economy.

“Third, given population growth at about 2.7 per cent annually, it is important that we continue to deploy measures that will enable our economy to attain annual growth rates of over five per cent.

“Through the pandemic, we are aware that our policy responses are often more effective when we work with the private sector. For example, the CACOVID alliance played an instrumental role in reducing the negative effects of the pandemic, by providing palliative support to families affected by the virus and in rebuilding our healthcare institutions.

“Leveraging the strength of the private sector will be critical in mobilising funds that are needed toward building a more resilient and stronger economy. We intend to strengthen collaborations with the private sector to support investments in critical sectors such as infrastructure, and ICT, in addition to ongoing efforts to build a stronger agriculture and manufacturing base in Nigeria.

“As a result, all efforts in 2022 must be made to ensure that we maintain our focus on improving access to finance and credit for households and businesses, mobilising investment to boost domestic productivity, enabling faster growth of non-oil exports, and supporting employment generating activities,” he explained.

Commenting on the recently introduced 100 for 100 policy on production and productivity, he reiterated that the programme targets credit of up to N5 billion to be provided to 100 firms every 100 days, provided that the firms are investing in projects that are Greenfield projects.

Secondly, projects would be assessed on their ability to generate significant employment opportunities in critical sectors of the economy, he added.

Thirdly on the 100 for 100 policy, he pointed out that eligible firms must show evidence of their efforts to harness available local raw materials towards the realisation of their intended investment.

Emefiele also said efforts would be made to support firms geared towards producing goods for the export market.


https://www.newslead.ng/2021/11/28/cbn-to-set-up-international-finance-centre-in-eko-atlantic-city/

Good for them

Our economy is not good at the moment and you want to go build a multi-billion dollar real estate in an expensive neighborhood to attract investors that may or may not come in??
smh, how will we move forward

Nice one