The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, on Tuesday disclosed that his team is targeting $1 trillion of Gross Domestic Product in eight years.
Cardoso made the vow when he appeared before the Senate to be screened as the substantive Governor of the CBN.
He equally vowed to address the issue of foreign exchange unification.
He added that the apex bank was faced with numerous challenges, adding that they have identified the challenges and how to address them.
He said: “We have identified issues of corporate governance, diminished institution autonomy, discontinuity of orthodox policies and foreign currency issues.
“Addressing inflation and price stability is the function of the CBN.
“We will address the issue of foreign exchange unification.
“If there is a need for interest rate alignment, we will do it for economic growth.”
To manage the economic policy, Cardoso said size matters, adding that they have identified macroeconomic indices and will facilitate new ways to attain $1 trillion GDP in eight years.
Speaking on inflation, Cardoso said each will be tackled based on their causes.
He said: “If the inflation is on food, we should ramp up production of food.
“If inflation is on energy, we know the challenges of energy.
“If you are importing, automatically you are importing inflation.”
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On the issue of money supply, Cardoso said the way money has gone up in Nigeria, “that itself is behind inflation.
“It is the problem.
“It is a big problem.
“But going forward, we will do everything possible to ensure that deficit financing does not bring problems to us.
“These are the assurances I can give you coming from outside because we will maintain a good working relationship to block the excesses we had in the past.
“I believe that the CBN under us will have no choice but to embrace a culture of compliance.
“We will not wait for oversight before we interact with the lawmakers.
“We will have zero tolerance to abuse of processes.
“We recognise the fact that we need to work closely with these chambers at the National Assembly to ensure compliance.
“Now that there is a reset at the CBN, we have to work closely to ensure that there is compliance.”
Cardoso added that deficit financing and undo money glut was responsible for 50 percent of inflation evidence-based and monetary policy.
He told the Senate that there was a need to stabilise the Naira to settle Nigeria’s outstanding debts, stating that the country is only spending money in printing currency rather than bringing in revenues.
He opined that Nigeria will not make progress if it is not able to handle that side of the foreign exchange rate.
Cardoso said the issue of foreign exchange rate was worrisome, adding that Nigeria must have a stable exchange rate.
