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The Senate on Thursday confirmed three nominees as members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), even as it rejected one nominee.
Those confirmed are: Adeola Adenikinju; Aliyu Sanusi and Robert Asogwa, while Asheikh Maidugu was rejected.
This followed the presentation and consideration of the Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, which screened the four nominees.
Chairman of the committee, Rafiu Ibrahim (APC, Kwara State) noted that while Adenikinju, Sanusi and Asogwa showed enough knowledge and competence for the job, Maidugu was rejected on grounds of incompetence.
The upper legislative chamber also confirmed the nomination of Aishah Ahmad and Edward Adamu as Deputy Governorship nominees of the apex bank.
In his report, Ibrahim described the three confirmed nominees as “very resourceful, diligent, articulate, competent and would add the needed value in the operations of the MPC”.
According to him, the three nominees possessed “vast knowledge that facilitate the attainment of the objectives of the price stability and the formulation of monetary and credit policies of the CBN”.
The lawmaker said the trio displayed adequate knowledge of the operations of the CBN Act, 2007 and the Banks and other Financial Institutions Act, 1990.
The report revealed that Maidugu was rejected because he may not be able to carry out his duties independently as a member of MPC.
The document disclosed that the nominee, who hails from Yobe State, has been a Director of Planning, Research and Statistics Department at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Abuja since 2015.
“The nominee was interviewed by the Committee and he responded to the questions asked by the members but the Committee was dissatisfied with his response to the independence required for each member of the MPC and concerned that a regular civil servant Iaden with bureaucracy and red-tapism may not be independent in his judgment on each crucial decision of the MPC that affects directly, the whole economy,” the committee submitted.
It would be recalled that on Tuesday last week, the Senate reversed itself on its resolution not to confirm members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
It therefore mandated its Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, to immediately confirm the two CBN deputy governorship nominees and four members of the MPC to pave the way for the meeting.
The MPC meeting billed for January 22 and 23 as well as March 19 and 20, 2018, could not hold as a result of the committee’s inability to form a quorum, as stipulated in the CBN Act 2007.
The meeting, where critical decisions on the economy are taken, meets once in every two months, bringing to six the number of times the Committee convenes in a year. The last meeting was held in November 2017.
The 12-member Committee comprises a chairman, who is the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other members drawn from the apex bank and seven members from the private sector.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who presided over the session, urged the Executive to present another nominee to replace the rejected MPC nominee. He assured that the nominated CBN Board members would also be looked into next week.
Speaking with BusinessDay after plenary, Ibrahim explained that the confirmation of the two CBN Deputy Governors and three MPC members, brings to eight, the strength of the MPC.
He said with the confirmation, the country’s first Monetary Policy Committee meeting for the year, billed for April 3 to 4, would now hold.
He said: “My expectation is that we believe that now that we have MPC that will be functioning, it will help the economy. Now they have a quorum because now they have eight members and the quorum is six members, which must include the CBN Governor or two Deputy Governors. Now we have four deputy governors with the Governor and three independent members of MPC. So, they can hold all the meetings at scheduled”.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja.
