By Chathushka Perera
Abuja, Nigeria (CWBN)_ Governor of the Nigerian Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, said that he expects the local economy to pull out of recession by the first quarter of 2021. He made reassurance while addressing the 55th Annual Bankers’ Dinner, organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
He added that “[…] with the implementation of our intervention measures, we also expect that growth in 2021 would attain 2 percent due to high frequency data that indicates continued improvements in the non-oil sector.”
The non-oil sector of the Nigerian economy is largely run by the telecommunications, financial and banking, agricultural, mining and quarrying, and construction industries.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the local economy faced a recession of 6.1 percent in the second quarter of this year, coming down from a 1.87 percent growth rate in the first quarter. In the third quarter, a drop of 3.62 percent was recorded.
The non-oil sector recorded growth by 1.55% in the first quarter of the year, although 0.93%, 0.72% below the first quarter and fourth quarters of 2019, however, by the second quarter it declined by 6.05% for the first time since 2017.
The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in March are being blamed for the decline of the local economy.
“The banking sector has a significant role to play as a facilitator of growth in the agricultural sector, through its intermediation function. Some of the opportunities in the agricultural sector that banks should explore include ways to address some of the existing gaps in the agriculture value chains, such as storage centres, transport and logistics, and technology platforms that can enable farmers to sell their produce directly to the markets.” Emefiele said.
He also said that “[The] information communications technology (ICT) sector is another sector which has emerged as a significant source of resilience in mitigating impact of Covid-19 on the economy […] It is important that we leverage ICT as an enabler for growth in key sectors of the economy. It is important that the banking sector consider viable IT firms is these areas that have potential to serve the needs of the local market.”
