Sango-Ota (Ogun), Feb.24, 2024: A financial expert, Dr Samuel Nzekwe, has urged the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to moderate the inflation rate in the forthcoming two-day meeting.
He also said the MPC needs to make emphatic efforts to reduce the country’s unemployment rate.
Nzekwe, the former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), made the call on Friday in Ota.
MPC will hold its two-day meeting to decide on the key monetary instruments on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27, in Abuja.
The meeting will be the first MPC meeting since Mr Olayemi Cardoso became the CBN Governor.
Nzekwe, who spoke on his expectations for the meeting, said the advice had become imperative because inflationary trends and unemployment were the two major problems currently facing the country.
He identified foreign exchange challenge as the major problem affecting Nigeria’s trade with other international countries.
Nzekwe said that the development contributed to the hike in inflation rate.
“The apex bank needs to look on how to generate and increase provision of forex as the country needs forex to back up its international transactions with other countries.
“It is beyond just increasing or decreasing the monetary policies or instruments as country’s inflation rate is on the supply side due to inability to back up our trades with other countries,” he said.
Nzekwe noted that Nigeria was an exporting country, as almost everything consumed in the country was exported, including spare parts and raw materials.
According to him, the liquidity ratio and cash reserves ratio should be left untouched while interest rate should be reviewed sightly downward to stem the inflationary trend.
Nzekwe suggested that the Federal Government needed to provide enabling environment for productive sector to thrive, thus producing more goods and services to create employment opportunities for the youth.
He added that the Federal Government should make concerted efforts to provide security to boost food production.
Nzekwe noted that increase in foreign exchange and putting some of the proactive measures in place would drastically reduce both inflation and unemployment in the country.
