Yemisi Izuora
The Senate has confirmed the appointment of Dr Olayemi Cardoso as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN,
It also confirmed the nomination of Mrs Emem Usoro; Mr Muhammad Dattijo; Mr Philip Ikeazor and Dr Bala Bello as the bank’s deputy governors.
Their confirmation on Tuesday followed the consideration and approval of a motion moved by Senate Leader, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ekiti Central).
Before their confirmation, the Senate suspended its orders to facilitate the admittance of the nominees into the chamber.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Abdullahi Gumel led the nominees into the chamber.
Thereafter, the CBN governor and the deputies took turns to highlight their career profiles and professional experiences.
Cardoso said for 12 years, between 2010 and 2022 he had the privilege of serving as the chairman of Citi Bank where: “I dedicated myself to enhancing both the financial and non-financial operations of the institution.’’
He told the Senate that the issue of exchange rate of the Naira to other currencies was worrisome.
“For the type of economy that we want, we need to have an exchange rate that is stable and we must apply short and medium term measures to achieve this,’’ he said.
Cardoso added that CBN’s new management team would evolve rules that were open and transparent and comprehensible by all players in the finance business.
“We cannot expect serious foreign investors, portfolio investors who have an impact on the market to do so if we do not have a transparent system that everybody understands and can rely on,’’ he said.
On the issue of inflation and costs of goods, Cardoso said the CBN management would adopt evidence-based monetary policies.
“There is the need to significantly revamp the infrastructure at the central bank with respect to data and to ensure that our data gathering capacity is significantly enhanced.
“This is necessary so that we can make decisions based on stellar data. This is crucial in measuring inflation,’’ he stressed.
He added that reliable studies showed that in the past 10 years to 15 years, at least 50 per cent of inflation resulted from money supply and deficit financing.
“This is a big problem; at least it certainly has been over a period of time and it is something we have to face frontally,’’ he said.
Cardoso also told the Senate that the CBN would ensure that the issue of deficit financing ceased to be a national problem.
Earlier, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio (APC-Akwa Ibom North-West) said the Senate reconvened from its annual recess to expeditiously consider and confirm the nominees.
He said the expeditious confirmation also resulted from the emergency resignation of the former CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
Akpabio urged the Senate Committees on Finance and Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to regularly conduct thorough oversight of the CBN.