Breaking News

Gambia seeks CBN’s support on exchange rate stability

Ebuka Daniel

The Central Bank of Gambia has reached out to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele in tackling Gambia’s currency challenges and exchange rate volatility.

The request, is in addition to   tapping from CBN’s wealth of experience in the management of monetary policy, information technology modernization and cyber security control.

Gambia’s Central Bank Governor Mr. Buah Saidy stated his mission on Tuesday in Abuja when he led   executives of his bank to meet Emefiele.

The visit, he added, was deliberately undertaken by him and his management team to learn from experience of Nigeria’s CBN on ways to administer effective monetary policy.

He gave Emefiele a run-down of Gambia’s economy and areas he wanted CBN to assist by way of collaboration.

Saidy said he jettisoned advice by some people to seek the assistance of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in finding solution to Gambia and opted to seek assistance from Nigeria’s Central Bank.

Appointed as Governor of Central Bank of Gambia in October last year,  Saidy said Nigeria’s Central Bank was a home coming for him and his team.

He said, “Gambia’s economy was hit by Covid just like any other economies on the face of the earth. Before the Covid-19, our growth was six percent. Currently, it’s a contraction of 0.2 percent.

“For 2021, because of the roll out of vaccines, lockdown, growth for 2021 is estimated at 4.1 percent.

“The IMF’ forecast Gambia economy at 4.9 percent. On monetary policy, we are holding very well trying to help the fiscal policy. So, we are conducting accommodative monetary policy.”

On the areas he wanted CBN’s assistance, Saidy said, “We really need assistance in the areas of IT modernization, cyber security and how to investigate cybercrimes.

” Another area is legal. We need to exchange ideas on legal compliance.   When I took over as governor, we face this difficulty to regulate the financial system.

“We want to learn how you do this foreign exchange sequence, forex management, financial sector supervision.”

Responding, Emefiele assured Saidy of CBN assistance.

He said, “We appreciate your coming based on your realization that there is a need for us to have a cooperation between your bank and CBN particularly when we belong to the same organization under the West Africa Monetary Zone.

“We are delighted that you have chosen CBN an institution that to visit for collaboration between CBN and central bank of Gambia. I congratulate you on your appointment.   

“We appreciate your coming today and to assure that, this two-day event, will be a good experience for you. Our colleagues in monetary policy, research, banking supervision, statistics, will take you through what we do here.

“Like you know, monetary policy plays a pivotal role in economic development in any nation, and Nigeria being the biggest economy in west Africa.”

Emefiele said CBN will not pretend to have solutions to all challenges listed by his Gambia counterpart.

About Editor

Check Also

Upscale the Quality of Your Products to Meet global standards, WTO DG charges Shea Producers

The World Trade Organisation, on Tuesday, charged Nigeria and other African countries to improve the …

Leave a Reply