First Bank Set the Tone For The New Year 2022 With “Nigerian Economic Outlook Webinar”

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier and leading financial inclusion services provider just concluded its “Nigerian Economic Outlook Webinar” convened to reflect national and global economic trends that shaped 2021, whilst forecasting the economic outlook of 2022.

The virtual event themed “A rearview look at 2021, lessons learnt-Outlook 2022”started by 1 pm on Thursday, 13th January 2022 via Zoom.

The webinar set the tone for the year by providing an opportunity for participants to learn directly from economic experts to stay informed and knowledgeably empowered to make the right decisions in their socio-economic activities in 2022 which will be impacted by the micro and macro-economic activities of the country.

With Nigeria’s economy projected to grow by 2.7% in 2022 as predicted by The International Monetary Fund (IMF) based on an expected recovery in crude oil prices and production, Nigeria will see economic activities normalizing. Key economic activities to watch out for in 2022 include the Global Market trends, removal of subsidies, and floatation of the Naira. However, recoveries in the oil sector and maximization of the e-Naira could help keep the parallel market in check.

Bismarck Rewane, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited and the event’s keynote speaker will lead deliberations at the event. Other speakers are Ini Ebong, Executive Director, First Bank of Nigeria Limited Treasury and International Banking; Opeyemi Agbaje, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RTC Advisory Services Limited, Olaitan Martins, Group Executive, Transaction Banking and Augustine Uddin, the Chief Economist, FirstBank.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 over two years ago, the global economy has witnessed viral economic shocks that adversely affected socio-economic activities. These have left many individuals and businesses struggling to stay afloat amid the economic downturn. As a leading financial inclusion services provider in the country, FirstBank has remained committed to providing products, services and initiatives that have been crucial in mitigating the adverse effects of Covid-19 on individuals and households.

Speaking on the event, the Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications of FirstBank, Ms. Folake Ani-Mumuney said ‘being woven into fabric of the society for over 127 years means that we provide value, support and innovation-driven solutions for our stakeholders regardless of the challenges of the pandemic. Our commitment to nation-building is anchored partly on our thought leadership role designed to relentlessly drive growth and scale for all through engagements that showcase versatile subject matter experts endowed with expertise, knowledge and valuable insights. The webinar provides a platform for cross fertilization of ideas and opportunities to learn and grow. Nigeria is a country rich in human and natural resources and these have helped in the reforms and resilience reflected in the economy in 2021’.

The COVID 19 pandemic brought disruption and challenges and largely Nigeria adopted measures to contain it. The pandemic also provided opportunities for rebuilding and facilitating economic transformation to close the gap with the rest of the world. These include innovations in information technologies (IT) which have been critical to ensuring business continuity and productivity among firms that have re-designed their work processes as well as telecommunications and payment systems in the e-commerce sub-sector.

Whilst many of the current government policies are aimed at absorbing the shocks induced by the pandemic, it is important to note that an economy that seeks to recover and build resilience should be one that focuses on innovation and creativity in driving its goal.

The event is for everyone as discussants will have the economic outlook for 2022 dissected so participants are knowledgeably equipped to make the right decisions thereby better planning their business and financial activities.

Some of the questions addressed include “What to anticipate from the effect of change from LIBOR to SOFR as being currently adopted in other jurisdiction going to be on our financial sectors and the banks customers as a when adopted”.

Another question was what “Holy Trinity” means which was translated as the inter-relationship between interest rate, inflation and foreign exchange rate.

A representative of ClipTV online Abraham Adaranijo who was presented at the Webinar posted a question about the current state of agriculture in the Nigeria economy. He mentioned that the first quarter in the year 2021 recorded only 22.3% of agriculture input in the country’s economy. On the other hand, agricultural products were 75% of the country’s economy in 1970’s and 80’s. He also asked how the Nigeria economy can be liberated from relying on the US Dollar.

Over two thousand participant around the globe attended the webinar. The Closing remarks done by Ini Ebong from First Bank PLC.