Economic Crisis: My Job, The Second Most Difficult On Earth — CBN Governor, Cardoso

Olayemi Cardoso, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has described his job as the second most difficult on the globe. 

Olayemi Cardoso, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has ranked his position as the second most challenging in the world.

This proves that the federal government's reform and other initiatives are having the desired effect. Cardoso gave a speech on Sunday in Abuja to kick off the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria's (CBCN) First Plenary Assembly of 2024.

“I will continue to remember that in spite of (my job) the second most difficult job on the face of the planet, this is really something that remains very memorable,” said the governor of the CBN.

Read: Reduce Your Appetite For Dollar, Foreign Goods — CBN Governor

Chairman of the event Cardoso expressed hope that, despite everything, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. “During the course of the last week, approximately $1.8 billion entered the markets as a result of some of the recent reports from the CBN.”

“Nigeria will overcome its economic difficulties and the foreign exchange market will start to stabilize itself, provided the country maintains a positive trajectory,” the speaker predicted. He stated that important decisions to keep the economy more investor-friendly will be made at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which the apex bank will host shortly.

There has been an attempt, according to Cardoso, to combine the official and black market rates; the difference between the two is now much less.

“There is a positive outlook on that. The positive outlook comes from the fact that a series of reforms have been made by the federal government and the Central Bank, which are now paying off in such a way that international investors are coming back in again,” he said.

According to him, one of Nigeria's challenges in terms of economic development is figuring out how to stop being a nation of consumers with a voracious appetite for imports, “You have got to move as a country beyond being a consumer nation. And it is something that we as Nigerians have been talking about for so long, but really, we've not been able to actualize it. The other thing, of course, is to moderate appetite for foreign goods. And that's closely related to what I had said earlier with respect to becoming a producer nation, because at the end of the day, many of the things you see and many of the things that bother a lot of people with respect to foreign exchange are all essentially down to demand and supply,” Cardoso said.