The acting governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, has given an insight into how he and his team  will address both the devaluation of the Naira and the rising inflationary trend.

Cardoso disclosed this while fielding questions from senators during his screening as the CBN governor and the deputy governor nominees on the floor of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Cardoso said that he will use what he called short term and long term measures to address the challenges .
“On the issue of foreign exchange which everybody has been talking about is very worrisome. It goes without saying that for the sort of country we want we need to have an exchange rate that is very stable. For a country that we all dream of we need to have an exchange rate that is stable.

“The major short term measure has to do with balance of payments over a period of time like the sort of things that are being done already with respect to ensuring that you are getting more Petroleum Resources and diversifying the economic base of the country. That I believe will continue by the present administration and of course it will take time I think we should take that as a medium.

“The more immediate is what you need to look at: Number one, is what I call operational issue.

“We are aware that there are unsettled obligations by the CBN. Whether it is N$4b, N$5b or N$7b, I don’t know but definitely the immediate priority is to ascertain the extent.

“We need to find a way to take care of that. It will be naive for us to be expecting to succeed if we are not able to handle that side of the foreign exchange market.”

Cardoso further explained his second point, saying, “Second, we have to be transparent so that any of the players in that market will understand. We have to come up with rules that are transparent that any of the players in that business understands

“You cannot reasonably expect serious foreign investors, portfolio investors Foreign Direct Investment, that is why we were talking about short term we are not going to expect that players players who will have direct impact on your market will not do so if we do not have an open, transparent system that everybody understands, that can be relied on.

“Those two immediate steps will go a long way to ease up the restrictions and encourage investors to come with their money.
The short term measures is something that my team will address. The impact will help us with greater liquidity.

“In setting up those guidelines, one will also have to carry stakeholders along.

“These are two immediate steps that will go a long way to ease up the restrictions and encourage investors to come with their money. The short term measures is something that my team will address. The impact will help us with greater liquidity.

“On the issue of inflation , again there are longer term measures there are shorter term measures and I believe that some of those measures are being taken already.

“We will be looking at evidenced based monetary policies. We must do something about our data capacity to take critical decisions, based on data.”