Recession: CBN Calls on Nigerians to Remain Calm, Work Hard, Obey Rules

• As NLC demands wage increase, regular payment of salaries

Amby Uneze in Owerri

Worried by the current recession in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has called on Nigerians to remain calm, engage in hard work and observe simple rules by supporting the apex bank in her effort to control foreign exchange and encourage made-in-Nigeria products.

Alternatively, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in her X-ray of the economy, also called on the government to increase workers’ salaries as well as prompt payment of salaries as a way for Nigerian workers to survive the harsh economic recession which the drop in oil had caused.

Addressing stakeholders in a one-day interactive enlightenment meeting with organized labour in Owerri, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications of CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, while maintaining that the country is under recession, urged Nigerians to have strong belief that “we can get out of the recession as hardworking Nigerians.

“What is required from every one of us is a strong belief that we can get out of it as hardworking people. There are things we need to do to get out the recession: we are calling on all Nigerians to be calm, work hard enough and obey simple rules”, he said.

Okoroafor encouraged Nigerians to support the federal government’s directives to ban the importation of 41 items that can majorly be produced in Nigeria to save the country’s foreign exchange reserve, adding “we can produce these 41 items in Nigeria comfortable and save foreign exchange.

“We should all support that policy, so that we can allow our people to produce those goods and supply to the people so that we can consume them and give employment to our people, instead of importing the same goods from abroad and creating jobs abroad for their people.”