Recession: Emefiele Opens Talks with Chinese Investors

By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku and Obinna Chima in Washington D.C

As part of efforts to attract the much-needed foreign investments in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele yesterday revealed that there are ongoing talks with Chinese investors as well as other foreign investors to enhance growth in the economy.

Emefiele, who is presently attending the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington DC, disclosed this in an interview with journalists, at the end of plenary session with the World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim,

The move is aimed at luring back investors that had been scared off by the drop in oil prices as well as to attract potential investors.

“I can assure you that meetings are going on (here in Washington) with some of our partners, China particularly. We are going into a meeting with Chinese delegation. I know that from the meeting to be also held with the Managing Director of IMF as well World Bank Group, we are going to achieve some of our objectives,” he explained.

Emefiele said the decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to include the Chinese currency in its basket of currencies, would impact positively on Nigeria in the long-run.

Commenting on the call by the IMF boss that there was a need to adopt three pronged approach to achieving growth, from monetary, fiscal and structural reforms, Emefiele said: “Basically there is no gainsaying the fact that. That has to be the direction everybody has to go and I think that we are doing that in Nigeria. There is serious coordination and collaboration between the monetary and fiscal authorities, and I believe that if we continue in this direction, we would achieve that objective.

“Well, we have done a couple of reforms, such as the flexible exchange rate regime. It is picking up gradually. When you are in the type of situation that we are in, naturally you find find out that people are a little bit skeptical. But with time, as we develop the confidence, we would begin to see more of them coming into the country,” he added.

“Well, we have done a couple of reforms, such as the flexible exchange rate regime. It is picking up gradually. When you are in the type of situation that we are in, naturally you find find out that people are a little bit skeptical. But with time, as we develop the confidence, we would begin to see more of them coming into the country.”