Senate Committee Backs CBN’s Monetary Policies

•  Emefiele: Economic challenges difficult but surmountable

James Emejo in Abuja

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim, monday said he was so far satisfied with the current monetary policy measures adopted by the Central Banking of Nigeria (CBN) to get the economy on the right track.

He said the committee would continue to play its role to help the apex bank effectively perform its duties for the country to function properly.

Addressing journalists at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, shortly after an oversight function, he said the committee was satisfied with explanations by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on recent policy initiatives including financial interventions to states and loans to various sectors of the economy.

Asked to comment on concerns over the alleged disharmony between the operations of both the monetary and fiscal authorities, Adebayo said it wasn’t a major problem.

He said: “We discussed that but we don’t see any major problem, it’s majorly about perception because when any nation is in this kind of situation, all of us are in a hurry to get out-so if we are adopting some measures and it’s not bringing instant result, naturally we would complain.
“But we have spoken to the CBN and they’ve said they are working together with the fiscal side and that they are always working together, so we believe they are working in harmony.”

The chairman, who also said both parties had exhaustive discussions on all issues added that “we spent two and a half hours discussing and we were not in a hurry; the senators were not in a hurry and the CBN was not in a hurry. So they took all our questions. There was no time limit and were able to exhaust…we are now more enriched about the operations of the CBN and our own role is to help the institution to perform its duties effectively for Nigeria to function very well.”

He said issues around the CBN’s various interventions to state governments and other sectors of the economy was also addressed and expressed satisfaction at the apex bank’s responses.

Ibrahim said: “We discussed the bailouts and they’ve told us what they’ve done and we’ve requested for a detailed hard copy report on all the bailouts and loans. We are satisfied.”

Earlier, Emefiele had told the legislators that though difficult, the present economic challenges were surmountable and craved their continuous support for the bank to effectively exercise its mandate.