CBN CALLS FOR INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURE.

The Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, who represented the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the 9th Annual Banking and Finance Conference in Abuja on Tuesday called on banks to finance agriculture with the aim of developing the economy. According to the CBN, the continued global fall of oil prices and its effects on the Nigerian economy required the financial sector to change the structure of the economy in a way that would reduce over dependency on foreign exchange. The apex bank also urged financial institutions to set deliberate policies that would finance development projects including agriculture. The President of the Nigerian Chartered Institute of Bankers, Debola Osibogun, said that the recent Treasury Single Account would lead to more liquidity in the system that would provide finance for indigenous projects. Nigeria is an import based economy, a development that has drained the oil-rich nation of much foreign exchange, a trend that the experts at the conference planned to change.