APPRAISAL OF THE RELEVANCE OF THE MONETARY POLICY INSTRUMENTS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE NIGERIA ECONOMY

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Because money can affect many economic variables that are important to the well being of any economy, politicians and policy makers throughout the world care about the conduct of monetary policy- that is -the management of inflation rates, exchange rates and interest rates.
The institution responsible for the conduct of a country’s monetary policy is the Central Bank.
Monetary policy involves changes in the money supply or the choice central banks make regarding the money supply.
According to Mordi, (2001) it is how the monetary authorities choose to regulate and control the value, supply and cost of money in the economy in consonance with the expected level of economic activity.
In choosing how best to regulate the money supply, the CBN makes use of monetary policy instruments to influence certain variables to achieve some intermediate goals, which would eventually lead to the ultimate objectives. The impacts of these policy instruments are translated to the economy through a process called transmission mechanism.

Bernanke, (1998) stresses that the channel of transmission can be through either quantities or prices. He however, added that the policy could be transmitted through quantities via the monetary or credit channels and through prices via the interest rate, exchange rates or asset prices.
Monetary policy generally describes the actions taken by the central bank to influence monetary conditions in the economy with a view to achieving some defined macroeconomic goals.

STATEMENT OF CBN CORE MANDATE

The mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is derived from the 1958 Act of Parliament, as amended in 1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2007.
The decree of 1991, now an Act of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for the continuance of the CBN with Board of Directors consisting of the Governor, Four Deputy Governors and Five non-executive Directors. The Act charges the Bank with the overall control and administration of the monetary and financial sector policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The statutory mandates of the CBN are as follows:
1. To issue legal tender currency
2. To maintain external reserves
3. To safeguard the international value of the legal tender currency
4. To promote monetary stability and sound financial system in Nigeria
The attainment of these goals would result into the country achieving both internal and external balance.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Nigeria economy like many others of the developing countries has in the last two decades been beset by a number of problems which includes:- rising inflations, persistent weakness of the national currency (the Naira) in the foreign exchange market, slow growth, high interest rate, massive unemployment and huge external debt burden.
These problems have remained persistent and challenging to the authorities and managers of the nation’s economy despite the application of various monetary policy measures. This situation has often created frustrations or even doubt on the relevance or other wise of the application of monetary policy measures in the management of the economy.
For instance, it was widely reported in the media in 1989 that the former military President of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida once said, “The Nigerian economy has defiled all known economic theory”.

However, the growing interest on price stability as a major goal of monetary policy is an acknowledgement of the observed phenomenon that low inflation provides a base for sustained economic growth and development.
It is in the light of this that it becomes imperative to critically appraise the relevance of the instruments of monetary management and analyze the relationship between actual inflation and monetary policy target inflation, actual interest rate and monetary policy target interest rate as well as actual exchange rate and monetary policy target exchange rate.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
A. To critically appraise the relevance of the instruments of monetary and credit policies and examine the challenges of ensuring appropriate inflation rate, exchange rate and interest rate regimes in Nigeria.
B. To find the relationship between actual inflation rate and monetary policy target inflation rate, actual interest rate and monetary policy target interest rate and actual exchange rate and monetary policy target exchange rate.
C. Identify those factors prevalent which has led to the ineffectiveness or otherwise of monetary policy instruments in Nigeria and suggest ways of overcoming them.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1 Are monetary policy instruments truly relevant in the management of the inflation, interest and exchange rate?
2 What is the nature of relationship between