Godwin Emefiele is the 10th indigenous Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) and while building on his predecessors’ achievements, he brought creativity and innovation into Nigeria’s central banking operations to the admiration of all including those who didn’t believe in his vision.
Despite assuming office at the time when oil exports are the mainstay of the economy, the oil price had declined by 60 per cent and then erroneously blamed for the subsequent woes ranging from a severely impacted economy.
And for the first time in 25 years, a recession in 2015 coupled with the ensuing media feast about the depreciation of the Naira, and alleged criminal depletion pf the country’s foreign reserves, with all these incidents Emefiele unmoved and prepared for whatever the future holds.
The undaunted Emefiele led-CBN management believed that the Bank should act as a financial catalyst, empowering other sectors of the economy to create jobs on a large scale and reduce the nation’s dependence on crude oil.
He brought on board novelties similar to the 2006 Noval Prize winner in social business and entrepreneurship model Professor Mohammed Yunus, former helmsman at Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. Grameen Bank was a microfinance organization and community development bank founded in Bangladesh called the bank for the poor.
The model was inspired during Bangladesh severe famine of 1974 when Yunus decided to make a loan of US$24bn to about 9 million borrowers as start-up money to enable them to produce items without the burdens of high-interest rate under predatory lending, he believed if this initiative is made available to a larger population could stimulate businesses and reduce widespread poverty in Bangladesh.
Emefiele emulated Bangladesh’s model which critics tagged as unorthodox monetary policy in which he embarked on a series of developmental initiative to create an enabling environment with appropriate incentives to empower innovative entrepreneurs especially the youths, aimed at driving growth and sustainable development.
