We Support Finance Minister’s Call For Interest Rate Cut – Manufacturers

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to lower interest rate so government can borrow domestically to boost the economy without increasing debt costs.

While reacting to the minister’s call, the President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Dr. Frank Jacobs, said that a cut in interest rate would be the best thing to happen to the economy.

He said, “It will be the best thing that has ever happened to the economy, particularly the manufacturing sector.
“It is what we have been agitating for since and if the interest rate is brought down, it will be the best decision in the current economic dispensation.”

The government is also planning an “immediate large injection of funds” through asset sales, advance payments for licence renewals and infrastructure concessions, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, said.

Adeosun said she was working with the Debt Management Office, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and the pension industry to issue an infrastructure bond to raise money for road and housing projects.

She urged the central bank to reconsider its July interest rate increase, which it implemented to help support the naira and attract foreign investment.

The central bank is due to announce its next rate decision today (Tuesday).