Emefiele Bags Silverbird Award, Tasks Governors On Agriculture

Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been conferred with the 2017 Silverbird Special Achievement Award.

The CBN governor was presented with the prestigious prize by the Silverbird Group at a grand ceremony held at the Eko Hotels & Suites, Lagos on Friday.

Receiving the award, Emefiele, who was accompanied by the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability (FSS), Dr. Okwu Joseph Nnanna and other top staff of the apex Bank, dedicated the prize to all staff of the CBN.

Emefiele attributed the successes recorded by the Bank to the CBN staff, who he said toiled and worked very hard in spite of the challenges facing the country.

 

While thanking the Board and Management of the Silverbird Group for considering him for the award, he said the award would further spur the CBN to work even harder for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians.

Presenting the award to him earlier, the Minority Leader at the Nigerian Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, described Mr. Emefiele as a humble silent achiever who had done his best to maintain the global integrity of the Central Bank and to make the Naira stable.

The former Akwa Ibom state governor also used the opportunity to disclose that the senate had passed a bill to domicile the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in the CBN, in line with global practices.

The recognition comes hours after the CBN governor tasked state governments in Nigeria to take advantage of opportunities in their respective states to boost agriculture, even as he pledged the Bank’s support to any State Government committed to agriculture.

He gave the charge in Emure-Ile, Ondo State, shortly before he and the Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, performed the ground-breaking ceremony of Greenfield Integrated Poultry and Powderized Egg Facility.

While reiterating the charge of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to Nigerians to “produce what we eat and eat what we produce”, Mr. Emefiele emphasized that the attention focused on agriculture was a good strategy.

“Agriculture can still be used as a catalyst for creating jobs, reducing unemployment and driving growth in Nigeria,” he noted, even as he recalled that the ban on the importation of chickens in 2003, with the exception of day old chickens, boosted the poultry industry in Nigeria.

With the commencement of the Greenfield Integrated Poultry Facility, Mr. Emefiele expressed optimism that the implementation of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme in the State would be tremendously expanded.

He also disclosed that a cumulative sum of N55.526 billion had been disbursed to over 250,000 farmers who cultivated almost 300,000 hectares of farmland for rice, wheat, maize, cotton, soybeans, cassava, etc. since commencement of the Programme in November 2015

Other awardees on the night includes the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who was awarded the Silverbird Man of the Year; the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, who received the Silverbird Personality of the Year Award; the Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, who received the Legislative Award alongside the Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila of the House of Representatives; and the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, who was awarded the Public Servant of the Year Award.

Others are; Dr. Ola Orekurin-Brown received the first Extraordinary Business Achievement Award for pioneering air ambulance services in Nigeria and other countries across Africa; Leo Stan Ekeh, Deji Alli, Biodun Shobanjo, Alhaji Samad Rabiu, Chief Abba Folawiyo, Stella Chinyelu Okoli, Dame Maiden Ibru and Senator Daisy Danjuma.

The trio of Late Dr. Olusola Abubakar Saraki, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu and Chief Moshood Abiola all received post-humous awards for their respective contributions to the Nigerian project.