CBN decries low participation of South-East in intervention programmes

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has decried the low participation of the South-East in its economic intervention policies and programmes.

The acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of the bank, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, disclosed this on Tuesday during the CBN Fair in Enugu.

Nwanisobi said that the CBN intervention programmes were meant to create jobs, engender financial inclusion and make the people have access to finance.

He said Nigerians needed to leverage the intervention programmes of the apex bank for a better living at a time when inflation was spiking and prices of food items souring.

Nwanisobi said the aims of the CBN intervention in the real economy were to create jobs, bring down food prices, financially include the excluded and engender inclusive growth.

“This CBN Fair enables us to create awareness of all the policies and interventions of the bank and to talk to our people on how they can leverage the programmes.

“We noticed that there seems to be a lethargy in terms of people from the zone embracing the CBN interventions.

“There is also the need for the state governments to leverage the Anchor Borrowers Programme to improve the lives of the people,” he said.

Nwanisobi said that the apex bank in its bid to engender inclusiveness started its Commodity Development Initiative with 10 commodities “but now, we are at about 22 commodities.”

“In choosing the commodities we intervene in, we look at the possible impacts and those that will help us to create quick wins.

“We also intervene in areas where we have comparative advantage and not just for local production but for export also,” he said.

Nwanisobi said that the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, was very passionate about the 37 interventions of the apex bank, adding that the South-East could do much better in accessing them.

In a goodwill message, the Enugu State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Martins Idu, appealed to the CBN to domesticate some of its intervention programmes to enable more people to participate.

Idu said that most of the programmes did not have the value chains needed in the state.

The commissioner appealed to the apex bank to include honey production and piggery as some of the items under its Commodity Development Initiative.

He said that the state had no fewer than 2,000 farmers that were into piggery, adding that such people needed to be supported.

It was reported that the event which will feature lectures on the programmes and policies of the apex bank would end on Wednesday.