Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele has attributed the current economic recession in Nigeria to over-dependence on imported goods.
Speaking at the weekend at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), he said it is shameful that Nigeria still imports apple, cucumber and eggs from South Africa, beef from Zambia and toothpicks from China.
”How do we justify the importation of items like apple, cucumber and eggs?’’from South Africa; beef from Zambia and toothpicks from China?
”These are items we can locally produce and used money in importing these items to beef up local industries that will, in turn, create employments for our youths,” he said.
Emefiele, however, assured Nigerians that the country will get out of recession before the end of the year.
”In January 2017, inflation was 18.8 per cent, it is now down to 16.24 per cent. Last quarter, which was fourth quarter of 2016 growth, was negative 1.72 per cent. First quarter of 2017 growth had improved to negative 1.52 per cent.
”What that means is that we have an improvement in growth by about 1.2 per cent. If we see another 1.2 per cent growth in the second quarter we are out of recession,” he said.
