Ngozi Onyeakusi–The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it is targeting a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to the tune of 2.38 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019.

This was disclosed by the Deputy Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department in CBN, Dr Hassan Mahmoud, at the ongoing 2019 Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) workshop for financial journalists in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

Dwelling on the paper titled, State of the Nigerian Economy & Implications for the Stability of the Banking System’ Mahmoud said that the GDP growth target would be an improvement over the third quarter growth rate of 2.28 per cent.

“If you are looking at the 1.1 per cent that we did in 2015/2016, and 2.28 per cent that we did in the third quarter of 2019, we will see that we have really moved substantially.

“It is difficult to sustain positive rate GDP growth rates that we are projecting that by the fourth quarter of 2019. We are going to be doing 2.38 per cent, that is CBN projection, the IMF is projecting the same growth of 3.31 per cent.

On the wide gap between lending and saving rates in banks, he said that was dependent on customers’ negotiation skills.

He, however, said that it was the responsibility of CBN and NDIC to ensure that customers were not ripped off by the excesses of banks.

According to him, CBN is, however, creating ways to discourage the trend.

Mahmoud commended the permanence of some fixed income instruments in the financial market, saying that their yield rates had improved.

He, however, cards that yield rates on treasury bills had dropped to as low as eight per cent of recent.

On pension funds, he said the stock had increased to about nine trillion nairas of which the bulk could be invested in non-risky assets.