The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor Financial System Stability, Mr Okwu Joseph Nnanna, has said the foreign exchange management policies which is been introduced by the apex bank, have started yielding results.
Nnanna, who said this while delivering a keynote address at a round table session on “Economic outlook 2016: implications for Business In Nigeria” organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos last weekend, noted that businesses in Nigeria are now bracing up to take up the challenge of domestic production of hitherto imported commodities, reducing the demand pressure on the forex market.
He also noted that with the appropriate pricing of petroleum products underway, opportunities for local refining of crude oil are brighter than ever and this will provide investment opportunities in the down and upstream segments of the oil value sector chain.  
Nnanna stressed that the apex bank is  also expecting Nigerian banks to re-discover the agricultural sector, “as lending to this sector will free the economy from the strangle hold which the oil and gas sector has long had on the economy” he said.
He also mentioned that despite the economic challenges, the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of banks stood at 17.66 per cent, as at December, 2015.
This, he said, is well above the prudential requirement of 10 percent. Non-performing loans stood at 4.88 percent representing a two percentage point increase, but remains below the prudential requirement of five percent during the review period. “These suggest the ability of the Nigeria financial system to withstand current economic challenges going forward”  Nnanna noted.
The CBN boss noted that despite the challenging domestic and external macroeconomic environment which Nigerians currently face, he is convinced that it offers the country the much needed opportunity for introspection.
 Meanwhile, the president and chairman of the CIBN, Otunba (Mrs) ’Debola Osibogun, however, charges the federal government to provide the enabling environment to channel investments for real development in the critical sectors of the economy.
According to her: “The Federal Government plans to spend N6.08 trillion in the year 2016, this is 21percent above the total expenditure for year 2015. The most pressing national challenge is how the N2.2trillion budget deficit presented by Mr President, Muhammadu Buhari, will be financed in the face of unabated fall in global oil prices which has fallen below $30 per barrel”.
In her words:” Trillions of Naira has been stored away as a result of the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA)” 
She urged the government to therefore create a platform for these monies to be ploughed back into the critical sectors under a supervised regime to generate economic growth and development. “Any attempt to make banks fund government expenses as a social responsibility measure should be discouraged”, she mentioned.