Mr Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has called for a collaborative effort to increase crude oil production to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in line with OPEC quotas, noting that the current 1.1 million bpd production level is abysmally low and a red flag and disturbing development.
Given Nigeria’s OPEC limit of 1.8 million barrels per day, this is a dangerously low level of output.
He stated that at their 148th meeting, ten out of eleven members of the Monetary Policy Committee agreed to raise the benchmark interest rate from 18% to 18.50% in an aggressive drive to manage the nation’s runaway inflation, which is currently at 22.2%.
He went on to say that the apex bank was working assiduously to bring down inflation as many Nigerians are querying the rationale behind raising interest rates and yet inflation is not decelerating.
On the apex bank’s intervention programmes, Emefiele said over N8 trillion has been injected to intervene in different sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing health and education, adding that these have helped in sustaining the current growth trajectory in the Nigerian economy.