The Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre has urged the Federal Government to shun the “strangulating policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria” and respond quickly to the expectations of Nigerians.
Its Executive Director, Clement Nwankwo, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday.
Nwankwo said the policies of the CBN were forcing a lot of businesses to shut down, leading to unemployment.
He further urged the Federal Government to reduce unemployment and strengthen the economy.
He underscored the importance of continuing with the reform of the power sector and addressing the security situation in parts of the country.
He said: “The expectation of Nigerians on this government is quite high.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of urgency on the part of the government to respond to these expectations.
“And for a lot of people that’s a bit of worry about slowness of things, about the businesses that are not up and running because of the tightening and strangulating policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“They are out of synch with current world economic realities.
“The expectations are still there for Nigerians, but there is a slow government and I think that this government needs to understand that it is important for it to move quickly enough so that these expectations don’t lead to frustration amongst people.
“I think the government needs to focus on unemployment.
“It is a major issue.
“The revival of the economy, the power sector reform, security, all these are issues of concern to Nigerians.
“The strangulating economic policies being implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria need to be addressed and businesses need to be able to get back to work.
“A lot of businesses have shut down, a lot of people have been laid off.
“This government needs to be reflate the economy and get the CBN to back off from its current economic policies that damage the business in this country.”