By Abubakar Yunusa, Abuja
Adabayo Adelabu, the ministerial nominee from Oyo State, on Tuesday in Abuja advocated improved supervision and oversight on activities of the CBN by the economic management ministries of the federal government.
Fielding questions before the ministerial screening committee of the Senate, Mr Adelabu, a former Deputy Governor of the CBN, said the bank should never be in competition with the federal government as the latter’s economic agency.
He said there was nothing wrong about the structure of the CBN, but about its governance structure.
“There are three decision-making committees at the CBN and the governor is the chairman of each of the committees.
“They are the Committee of Governors, the Monetary Policy Committee and the Board of Directors.
“It is good and there is nothing bad with it because all over the world the independence of the CBN must be guaranteed, and the governor is just first among equals; there are four deputy governors
“We must ensure that the appointment of the deputy governors is independent of the CBN governor so that they are not subservient to the governor.
“The national economic management team – the Ministers of Finance and Budget and National Planning, the Accountant-General of the Federation and other relevant ministries must have some subtle oversight on decisions made by the CBN.
“If CBN knows that there is a body to which it will report on the allocation of foreign exchange, for instance, its decision on monetary policy and interest rates will be given more serious consideration,’’ he said.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, observed that the nominee’s submissions indicated that there was no proper monitoring of the CBN.
He noted that Mr Adelabu pointed out that there was no clear and organised statutory meeting of the CBN that involved the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Budget Planning ministry and other stakeholders.
He said remarks from the nominee also indicated that nobody was supervising the CBN for the years the nominee served as deputy governor.
“This is a good thought for senators and that means that we must revisit the Act setting up the CBN.
“Probably we would not have been where we are now if we had a proper monitoring of the CBN by the Act itself,’’ Mr Akpabio said.
The Senate screened nine ministerial nominees on Tuesday out of the 14 nominees listed for the day.
Those screened were David Umahi (Ebonyi), Olawale Edun (Ogun), Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna State) and Ahmed Dangiwa (Katsina State).
Others were Uche Nnaji (Enugu State), Stella Okotete (Delta), Adebayo Adelabu (Oyo State), Ekperikpe Ekpo (Akwa (Ibom) and Hannatu Musawa (Katsina State).
