President Bola Tinubu had last week forwarded to the Senate for confirmation, the names of nominees to the MPC of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Senate on Wednesday, subjected nominees for membership to the Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to thorough drilling.
Before the MPC’s meeting slated for next week Monday, the Senate, via its Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions, grilled six of the nominees on the urgent solutions needed to address the food crisis and forex volatility.
Alhaji Lamido Yuguda, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), addressed the committee first. He told them that the SEC would now have the necessary voice in monetary policy as a result of his nomination to the MPC.
He bemoaned the fact that the Naira’s current value is unreal since it no longer has intrinsic value. He, however, promised that the MPC, which would be inaugurated on Monday, would work with other stakeholders to stabilise the currency.
“Value of any currency is measured by the goods and services that it can buy the Naira as it is today, does not possess that value sufficiently which is being critically looked into,” he said.
According to Dr. Mustapha Akinkunmi, the nominee from Lagos State, focusing on the exchange rate rather than inflation which is currently being done with little success, is the best course of action.
“A more proactive way of addressing the Naira volatility problem at hand is for the CBN to target the Exchange Rate itself and not Inflation.
“The Inflation the country is facing now is largely that of food inflation, which is beyond CBN but for the entire country.
“Production and distribution of food commodities across the country would help to reduce the Food Inflation, while the aggressive target of Exchange rate, would help to stabilize the Naira with required increase in productivity,” he said.
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Mrs. Aku Odinkemelu, the nominee from Imo State, stated in a similar submission that productivity is essential to halting Naira volatility and food inflation.
Other nominees drilled at the session by the committee were: Professor Murtala Sagagi from Kano State, Bamidele Amoo from Kwara State, and Aloysius Uche Ordu, who worked with the World Bank and Africa Development Bank for 30 years at different times.
In his closing remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Tokunbo Abiru (APC Lagos East), said that what Nigerians expect to come after the meeting, are solutions to the rising inflation rate, worsening Naira volatility in the FOREX market and rejuvenation of the economy generally.
