The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has projected a 2.38 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The bank’s deputy director, Financial Policy and Regulation, Dr. Hassan Mahmoud said the GDP growth target would be an improvement over the third quarter growth rate of 2.28 percent.
He said this in Yola, Adamawa, at the 2019 workshop for financial journalists sponsored by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
“If you are looking at the 1.1 percent that we did in 2015/2016, and 2.28 percent that we did in the third quarter of 2019, you will see that we have really moved substantially.
“It is difficult to sustain positive rate GDP growth rates and we are projecting that by the fourth quarter of 2019, we are going to be doing 2.38 percent, which is the CBN projection. The IMF is projecting the same growth of 3.31 percent,” he said.
On the wide gap between leading and saving rates in banks, the CBN director said that it was dependent on customers’ negotiation skills.
“It is the responsibility of CBN and NDIC to ensure that customers were not ripped off by the excesses of banks,” he said adding that the apex bank is creating ways to discourage the trend.
