COVID-19: Another Lockdown Will Wound Economy — CBN

The Central  Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday warned the Federal Government (FG) against imposing another total lockdown of the country, saying such a move would be catastrophic to   Nigerians and the economy.

This was contained in the statement of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele,  at the end of the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) first meeting of the year in Abuja yesterday.

Emefiele said: “While expressing understanding of the public health dilemma of the recent spike in infections (COVID-19), MPC encouraged the government not to consider a wholesome lockdown of the Nigerian economy so as not to reverse the current gains of the stimulus earlier provided in 2020.”

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Giving more reasons why a total lockdown is not advisable, he explained: “As long as we see that there is second wave of COVID-19   even in Nigeria, while we are trying to convince government not to adopt the wholesome lockdown because that will be catastrophic for everybody and the economy, we would extend by 12 months again interest rate of   five percent for CBN intervention funds.

“It will result in losses for us particularly if we see yields going up but we think these should be also CBN contributions to ensure that interest rate particularly for our intervention funds which are targeted to either households, or SMEs, Agric, Health sector, pharmaceuticals,   that will increase   manufacturing output, we would continue to support it, we would continue to do so”.