The monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria in recent times has continued to focus on achieving price and financial stability for economic growth and development. The persistent inflation in the last one year is an issue of concern.

Key global trends such as Brexit, the rising wave of populist and anti-globalization sentiments anchored by emerging bilateralism, divergent monetary policy stance of the advanced central banks and disorderly commodity price movements will also affect monetary policy at home. These global developments coupled with domestic factors will make monetary policy management very difficult this year. Based on these, monetary policy management in Nigeria must be diligent and collaborative to achieve its objectives of price stability in the home front.

The future of the Nigerian economy is very bright. The Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (ERRP) by the Federal Government with other complementary policies are set to propel the Nigerian economy out of the recession and move the economy forward. The broad government strategy of infrastructure development, structural reforms and investment in social safety nets are policies that will position the economy to a more inclusive and diversified growth.

The challenges are many. Oil price volatility and the unstable global environment are major challenges for Central Banking in Nigeria as they are causing growth challenges and other spill-over effects for the local economy. Central Banking in Nigeria is faced with other enormous challenges such as the size of Nigeria’s informal sector. Globally, developing/emerging economies are characterized by a big informal sector which causes a lot of limitations to Monetary Policy implantation and coverage because a majority of the participants in the sector are not using formal financial services and so cannot be captured formally.

Government should incentivize production, provide enabling environment for businesses to thrive, ensure locally produced goods and services compete in the International Market and ensure that necessary infrastructures are put in place with these Nigeria will be self-reliant. In other words, there is need to Identify areas where we have competitive advantage, then develop required and necessary policies and most importantly ensure proper implementation of developed policies.

Taking these factors together, the effect on the Nigerian economy has been the significant decline in the country’s foreign reserves, depreciation of the Naira and substantial increase in consumer prices. To reverse the trend and put the economy back on a path to economic recovery, significant effort is needed on the part of the Federal Government, especially harmonization of its fiscal and monetary policies to boost aggregate demand and investor confidence.

Nigeria, like most developing countries, is greatly influenced by global health priorities and funding programmes, which tend to prioritise reducing mortality or ensuring survival rather than supporting or promoting well-being.

The macroeconomic policies presentedin the NGP are mixed. The monetarypolicy on the one hand commits to lowerreal interest rates and continued targetingof low and stable inflation.

In stabilizing the macroeconomic environment, we have focused on aligning fiscal with monetary policy and nudging the central bank toward the objective of more market-determined exchange rates.

Nigerians are not looking for a handout, what they need is the space and they will do the rest. People are really entrepreneurial, so for us as a country, it’s not for lack of human assets or the passion or desire to progress, it is about lack of good policy, good governance around economics, and making the environment conducive so that all Nigerians can prosper, no matter what positive endeavour they decide to engage in.

Then, there is the issue of monetary and fiscal policy coordination. Non- harmonization of monetary and fiscal policies is an issue of serious concern in the country because they complement each other. Monetary policy has a limit and whenever it reaches that limit, the only way out is for the fiscal authorities to intervene in the economy. So, in the absence of such coordination/harmonization between the two, a serious economic problem may arise.

For any country I do feel strongly that capital markets are extremely important, but more so for Nigeria than any other, because it’s almost been 50 years since independence.

Nigeria’s economic recession can be traced to a number of global and domestic factors. They include slump in commodity prices, general slowdown in economic activity in developing countries, over dependency on oil, lack of diversification of the revenue base, consumption-led growth, militancy in the Niger-Delta region, insurgency in the North East and unutilized excess liquidity in the banking system.

Nigeria needs to deepen its financial sector as a whole. Deepening the financial sector entails improving financial structures to ensure efficient delivery of financial services to the private sector.