The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, says he is not responsible for the economic crisis rocking Africa’s most populous nation.

Mr Cardoso said himself and his CBN team could be blamed for Nigeria’s galloping inflation and drastic naira depreciation.

“I think it is very important for Nigerians to understand that the central bank governor — I and my team — are not responsible for the woes that we have today. We are part of the solution,” Mr Cardoso said at the press briefing in Abuja Tuesday afternoon.

The CBN chief stressed that he was chosen during a period when the economy was already in disarray and that people had lost faith in the leadership, a situation he was making a concerted effort to reverse.

“We are determined to ensure that we work hard to get out of the mess that Nigeria is in. We assumed responsibility in a time of crisis of confidence,” Mr Cardoso promised.

He asserted that his team was beginning to win back the public’s trust, which is crucial for progress since without it, it is almost impossible to make any headway.

The CBN governor added, “All we can do is do the difficult things to make a bad situation better and I do believe that the efforts that we are making are beginning to bring back confidence because to be frank, without confidence in your business, you are not going to get far.”