In contrary to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that the current Nigeria's recession will not last long, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has asked Nigerians to brace up for the current economic recession in the country, saying that it was not a 100 metre race but a marathon.
The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said the economic recession facing the country will not last until 2020 as predicted by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba.
Osinbajo, who said this in Ede, Osun State on Thursday in an interview with journalists after the eighth convocation of the Redeemer’s University, stated that the recession would end very soon because the administration was focused on measures to revive the economy and make it strong.
He blamed the recession on destruction of oil pipelines which resulted in the reduction of crude oil being sold by the country and the drop in the price of crude oil in the international market.
Osinbajo said, “As far as we are concerned and so far as all of us who are working seriously hard are concerned, the recession must be short-lived.
But The CBN's Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor speaking in Enugu yesterday at the ongoing CBN Fair in Enugu, asked Nigerians to brace up for the current economic recession in the country, saying that it was not a 100 metre race but a marathon.
Okoroafor said that Nigerians must do this by patronising made-in Nigerian goods instead of spending hard currencies in importing items like tooth picks from China or chickens from South Africa. He however, blamed the elites for the problems pointing out that farmers eat what they produced” “We should stop importing chicken when we have them here.
Nigeria should brace up. This is not 100 metre marathon. Let us brace up and change our ways. “The most hit now are people who have refused to realise that we ought to eat what we produce, like the elite. Farmers eat what they produce,” he said.
Okoroafor stressed that the CBN had earmarked N220 billion for micro, small and medium enterprises, MSME, out of which 60 percent was meant for women and women-owned enterprises. According to him, some states have collected as much as between N2billion and N1 billion and registering corporative members in their states in bits.
“Some states elected to pay the interest which is not more than nine percent on behalf of the beneficiaries. That is a lot of guarantee and some are recording huge success.
“We also have the commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme, CACS, for larger commercial farmers. We are for everybody. One of the greatest highlights this time is the youth entrepreneurship programme and that programme is for corps members who are either in service or finished service in the last five years,” he added.