The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has again stressed the need for all Nigerians to face the reality of the fact that these are not normal times across the globe and therefore hard choices are required to turn around the situation.
Emefiele therefore, vowed to deploy appropriate monetary policy tools to attain inclusive growth by bolstering productive capacity and ensuring that the economy is indeed self-sufficient.
Emefiele, while delivering a lecture to participants of the Senior Executive Course 38 at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru, near Jos, on Friday, stated that “developments over the last two years show that these are not normal times by any stretch of imagination” noting that “the CBN has always tried to act in good faith, with the best available information and in cognizance of current economic conditions, to pursue the goals of price and financial system stability, as well as catalyse job creation and inclusive growth in the country.”
The apex Bank Governor in his lecture entitled, ‘Managing monetary policy in turbulent times, stated that “when you have policies that people are praising, that means such policies are not really good, because the people praising the policies know that they can circumvent them.
But if people criticise your policies, especially in Nigeria, such policies are good; the people criticise them because they know that they cannot circumvent them.
He, therefore urged that “we should remain resolutely committed to the course and be motivated by the achievability of our desire to strengthen the economic fundamentals.”
He also advised that when we stop importing toothpicks, stop eating imported rice cultivated with chemical, stop eating chicken imported and preserved with formaldehyde, then our economy will begin to grow.
Emefiele recalled that 20 years ago, we had textile, groundnut pyramids, Cocoa with which the legendry Cocoa House was built and palm oil.
‘‘We also used revenue from agriculture to build our economy. But after we found oil, we abandoned all that for easy money.
Today, we are suffering the consequences. According to him, with the size and structure of the country’s import bills, it is apparent that we as a people cannot continue to depend on other countries for things that can easily be produced locally,adding that,by so doing, we are merely exporting jobs and importing poverty.
“How do we justify the importation of items like eggs from South Africa, beef from Zambia and toothpick from China?” he queried. He expressed worry why the country cannot put its own institutions in order so as to avoid the huge amount being spent abroad, adding that the best Nigerian professionals are found abroad.
Avidor targets secure card printing market in Africa
By Adewale Sanyaolu
Avidor Services Limited, a fully integrated Information Communication Technology (ICT) firm specialising in the production of secure card printing, has disclosed plans to be a dominant player in the next five years.
The Chairman of the company, Prof. Oladapo Afolabi, stated this at the launch of Avidor Services Limited in Lagos at the weekend.
Afolabi, a former Head of Service (Hos) of the Federation, stated that Avidor would be the manufacturing hub for secure card printing in Africa in the next five years.
And to achieve the target, he explained that his company is better positioned to place Africa on the world map, because Avidor has the manpower and equipment to deliver world class service comparable to what obtains in Europe, America and Asia.
‘‘For us, we have the platform and equipment to manufacture while many others have either the platform or software, and not the physical manufacturing. But for us at Avidor, we have the combination of all. And this is what stands us out.
At the moment, we have opened talks with the Lagos State government, Railway Corporation and some other private sector ventures to see how we can help them move some of their services to our secured cards platforms which offers easy and seamless way of consuming services offered by Avidor in line with global best practices,’’ he said.
He explained that the plastic card production facility is equipped with the latest technology and has installed capacity of one million plastic card products per month, adding that the plant provides data personification services for various types of smart card products; contact, contactless including magstripe.
Giving further insights, he maintained that the company has deployed a full range of equipment in Nigeria in support of the emerging demand for Europay,MasterCard and Visa (EMV) bank card, GSM cards, ID cards and to improve quality and turnaround time for Nigerian industries and customers. Earlier in his address, the Minister of Communication Technology, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Sunday Echono, said it remained worrisome that most of the key players in the ICT sector are foreign companies.
He said the coming on board of Avidor, would help bridge that gap and allow the local content policy in the ICT sector promoted by the Ministry take its rightful place.