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Uche Usim, Owerri
Commissioner of Finance Imo State, Prof Uche Uwaleke has disclosed that the state was set to leverage on various intervention programmes of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in its efforts to create jobs, generate higher revenue and generally boost the fortunes of the state.
Uwaleke made the disclosure in Owerri at the opening ceremony of the 28th Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors holding in the Imo State capital.
According to him, the state was on the verge of keying into the various interventionist measures of the CBN like the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), commercial agriculture credit scheme and others.
Uwaleke, who doubled as the Chairman of the event, hailed the apex bank for its people-oriented programmes over the years.
He added that Nigeria’s exit of the recession was as a result of the dogged intervention of the apex bank.
He said: “the economy is gradually gaining traction, all thanks to CBN for the various programmes.
“Imo State is positioned to draw from acceleration credit scheme and the ABP, among other interventions.
“The theme: “Galvanizing Development Finance and Monetary Policy for Growth” is apt and we hope issues that will boost the economic will be discussed”, he said.
In her remarks, Mrs Georgina Nwankwo, the Branch Controller, CBN, Owerri, urged journalists to up the ante in financial reporting as financial activities of the economy were still under reported.
She urged the media to deepen reporting of critical areas, especially the financial inclusion strategy of the CBN.
She said; “There’s need to train business journalists to in turn inform the public on financial issues.
While appreciating the theme of the event, Mrs Nwankwo urged participants to ensure that discussions that would trigger actions that will grow the economy are kept on the front burner.
Earlier in his remarks, the representative of the CBN Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Mr Isaac Okorafor assured that the apex bank will continue to play a pivotal role is pushing out people-oriented policies.
“Whatever we can do to improve the economy, we all should do, including border protection. People call it border closure but we call it border protection.
“None of the CBN policies will work with our porous borders that will sustain continuous dumping of substandard goods in the country. “This will kill local production and ultimately kill our economy. Never again should we continue this way. We’ve chosen to do things differently. We plead that you go with us. Let us break this jinx that takes us back to Egypt.
While reading the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services’ speech, Okorafor said “the CBN’s approach to stimulate economic growth is anchored on agriculture, infrastructure and spurring SMEs. “These have helped in growing the economy even as we diversify our economy.
“In particular, we sought to improve domestic supply of four commodities (rice, fish, sugar, and wheat), which consume about N1.3 trillion annually in our nation’s import bill.
“We have also improved access to markets for farmers by facilitating greater partnership with agro-processors and industrial firms in the sourcing of raw materials. So far, the programme has supported more than 1.5 million farmers across all the 36 States of Nigeria, in cultivating 16 different commodities over 1.4 million hectares of farmland. It has also supported the creation of over 2.5 million jobs across the agricultural value chain”, he noted.
