TheCable

Adebayo Adelabu, one of President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial nominees, says the decisions and the activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be interrogated.

Speaking on Tuesday during his screening session with the senate, Adelabu said the financial regulator has a huge role to play in ensuring economic stability in the country.

The nominee was a former deputy governor of the CBN before he ventured into politics to contest in the gubernatorial elections under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said the decisions made by the three bodies of the central bank: the committee of governors (COG), the monetary policy committee (MPC), and the board of directors, must be interrogated.

“I would suggest that the economic management team of the country, which comprises of the finance minister, the budget and national planning, the CBN governor, the attorney general of the federation, and some other relevant ministries must have some subtle oversights in terms of interrogating a lot of decisions of the CBN,” he said.

“If CBN knows that there is a body it’s going to report to in terms of the list of companies and individuals that [it] allocated foreign exchange to, how did MPC arrive at the interest rates, the benchmark rates, and the volume of money created;

“In terms of Bureau De Change (BDC) licenced, payment system, and a lot of other things, as well as development, finance, intervention or lending.

“They will be very moderate and they will be careful, because this is an abnormal situation in the country and must be handled unconditionally.”

Adelabu, who also spoke on the governance structure of the apex bank, said the president should also consider taking a look at some of the minority opinions from the meetings of the decision-making bodies of the CBN.

“I  don’t really see anything wrong about the structure of the CBN,” he said.

“The only issue, which I will be open to the chamber, is around the governance structure or service in the CBN itself.

“There are five governors in the CBN: a governor and four deputy governors. We must ensure that the appointment of the four deputies must be independent of the central bank governor so that they are not subservient to the government itself.

“There should be occasions (it could be once in a quarter or once in six months) that the entire committee of governors would meet with Mr. president, and hear from their own perspective.”

SENATE TO REVISIT THE CBN ACT

After giving his opinion, senate president Godswill Akpabio said the recommendations made by Adelabu were “food for thoughts”.  

Akpabio, therefore, said the act that set up the CBN must be revisited.

“So we probably would not have been where we are now. If, indeed, we had proper oversight, and monitoring of the CBN by the Act itself,” he said.

The central bank is an independent institution mandated to regulate the financial sector of Nigeria, according to the CBN ACT of 2007.

President Bola Tinubu had, on Sunday, appointed Jim Obazee, former chief executive officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, as a special investigator to probe the activities of the CBN and related entities.