The Senate questioned the nominees for the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee on Wednesday, screening them and asking them about the ongoing food and foreign exchange issues.
According to The Punch, the names of nominees to the CBN’s MPC were sent by President Bola Tinubu to the Senate last week for confirmation.
Six of the nominees were interrogated by the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions about the immediate fixes for the food crisis and currency instability.
The director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lamido Yuguda, was the first to come under scrutiny. He told the committee that “The SEC will have the necessary voice in monetary policy thanks to his appointment to the MPC.
“He expressed regret that “the naira had lost its inherent worth and that, upon its inauguration on Monday, the MPC would work with other interested parties to restore it.
“The goods and services that a currency can buy determines its value. That value is not adequately present in the naira as it is, and this is being carefully examined,” he said.
The nominee from Lagos State, Dr. Mustapha Akinkunmi, claims that “Focusing on the exchange rate rather than inflation which is the current focus but hasn’t produced many results is the best method to resolve the current FX situation.
“To tackle the current issue of naira volatility in a more proactive manner, the CBN should focus on the exchange rate and not inflation, he said.
“Food inflation, which affects not just the CBN but the entire nation, is the main cause of the current inflation the nation is experiencing.
“National food production and distribution would help to lower food inflation, and the aggressive exchange rate target would help to stabilize the naira with the necessary boost in productivity,” he said.
In a corresponding submission, Imo State’s nominee, Mrs. Aku Odinkemelu, stated that “The stabilization of the currency and the containment of food inflation hinged on productivity.”
Professor Murtala Sagagi from Kano State, Bamidele Amoo from Kwara State, and Aloysius Ordu, who spent thirty years working at various locations for the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank, were among the other nominees that the committee interviewed.
The committee’s chairman, Senator Tokunbo Abiru (APC Lagos East), informed the nominees that their screening had been completed in advance of the MPC meeting, which CBN had scheduled for Monday of the next week.
According to him, “Nigerians anticipate answers to the country’s growing inflation rate, increased naira volatility on the foreign exchange market, and an overall boost to the economy following the meeting.”
