CBN sensitises Lafia residents on economic development initiatives

By Etuka Sunday

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has organised a two-day sensitisation fair in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, to create awareness about the bank’s activities in relation to economic development initiatives.
Speaking at the event, held at Ta’al hotel, the Director of Corporate Communications, CBN, Isaac Okoroafor, said the bank attaches great importance and commitment to the sensitization programme, and that their main objective is to create awareness about the CBN activities as it concerns economic development initiatives of the bank, with a view of explaining the opportunities available and how every citizen can take advantage of them.
Represented by Veronica Aqua, Okoroafor said the various initiatives of the CBN based on monetary policy, modernization of payment system, development financing programme and financial literacy are designed to revamp, reposition and re-engineer vital sectors of the economy.
He said some of these initiatives include the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME), Micro Finance Policy, Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), electronic payment system and alternative payment channels.
Others include mobile banking, rights of consumers of financial services, financial inclusion, Biometric Verification Number (BVN) and pursuit of sound and stable financial system.
She said if such initiatives are well understood and the opportunities are adequately tapped the economy will be well repositioned.
“The fair is therefore, planned to mobilize the low income but economically active people, especially, women, youths entrepreneurs, farmers and financial service providers to come together, interact and create synergy towards enhancing access to finance, increase productivity, generate employment, create wealth and engender sustainable growth.”
She said it is expected that at the end of the event participants would be in a good position to evaluate and take basic financial decisions that can enrich their entrepreneurial skills.