Adamu Lametek, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has urged the Federal Government to focus on the growth of the Nigerian economy as it remains delicate.
The CBN deputy governor, pointed this out in his personal statement at the last MPC meeting. He highlighted the struggles that were groping various sectors of the economy, despite the positive growth in Gross Domestic Product in the third quarter of 2021.
According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s GDP grew by 4.03 per cent in Q3, 2021. This report was released in October, 2021. However, Lametek noted that the rate of economic growth is supposed to be increase at a better rate, if enough jobs are to be created, that could lead to a significant economic development.
Speaking on the surging inflation rate, he mentioned that efforts have gone in to reduce the values, and those efforts have resulted in a decline of the inflation rate, over the last seven months. He also acknowledged that the inflation rate has not been able to attain the pre-pandemic level, despite all the efforts so far.
Since the pandemic. Nigerians all over the 36 states have decried the constant increment on the prices of goods and services, asserting that more action is needed from the bodies that are involved with pricing and maintaining economic stability. The inflation of prices has greatly reduced the standard of living of Nigerians in their millions.
Lametek explained in his statement that the growth of the economy in the past year is not exclusive of the reality that many sectors are currently struggling.
“Even at the 4.03 per cent overall real growth rate in Q3, some sectors (activities) were still struggling.
“Among those, oil and gas, fishing and oil refining stood out. These activities and some others that barely crossed the line would continue to require policy support in the short- to medium-term.
“The need to sustain liquidity support to key economic activities is buttressed by the vulnerabilities in the horizon, including new variants of the coronavirus driving infection resurgence.
“For Nigeria, I do not think the time is rife to look away from economic growth for at least two reasons. Though impressive, growth is still fragile and should benefit from a slightly much longer policy support.
“The second consideration is that the current pressures on domestic prices appear to be largely supply related, in which case, increasing domestic output of goods and services and easing distribution bottlenecks should go a long way in alleviating the pressure.
He encouraged the provision of extra fiscal support to enable those struggling sectors to recover.