Lagos – Some financial experts on Monday urged the new Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to work out strategies, aimed at promoting lending to the real sector.

Some of the financial experts told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the new CBN governor should pursue and consolidate friendly policies that would create employment and stablise the economy.

Dr David Ogogo, the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Capital Market Registrars, said that Emefiele should be careful in accepting subsisting policies.

Ogogo said that the governor should work on strategies that would stabilise the nation’s currency against other currencies at the foreign exchange market.

He said that the CBN chief should streamline money market policies to ensure economic stability and growth.

According to him, if Emefiele is able to streamline money market policies, the effect on the capital market will be positive because banks constitute 70 per cent of market activities.

Alhaji Rasheed Yussuf, the immediate past President of the Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria, said that the governor should concentrate on macroeconomic policies, essential for economic growth.

Yussuf said that Emefiele should also ensure strong management of money supply in the system and concentrate on how to boost the nation’s dwindling reserve to boost investors’ confidence in the economy.

“We are not expecting a major policy shift but consolidation of existing policies for the betterment of the economy,’’ Yussuf said.

Mr Harrison Owoh, the Managing Director of HJ Trust & Investment Ltd., said that the governor should take a proper look on the Monetary Policy Rates and Cash Reserve Requirement, to make them more investor friendly.

Owoh urged the governor to pursue policies that would encourage lending, create employment and help the growth of the real sector.

“ Emefiele should be a friend to the market, a reformer and team player and should not be judgmental, “ Owoh said.

He said that policies that were detrimental to the economy should be dropped and changed with friendly policies.

However, Mr Henry Boyo, an economist with Les Leba Nigeria Ltd., expressed reservations on the market expectations from the new governor, noting that Emefiele being a banker would not like to hurt his constituency.

Boyo said that high interest and exchange rates and non-lending to the real sector were the major problem of the nation’s economy.

He said that banks had abandoned their major business and depended solely on huge liquidity in the system created by the CBN’s substitution of naira revenue for dollar revenue.

Emefiele resumed on June 1 as the new CBN governor, following the suspension of Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi by the presidency in February. (NAN)