Fresh hope for investors as Senate confirms 5 CBN nominees

THE confirmation of the appointments of Mrs Aisha Ahmad and Mr Edward Adamu as substantive deputy governors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), along with three members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)has given fresh hope for the resumption of regular meetings of CBN’s monetary policy members and a renewed confidence for investors.

This is coming after two consecutive meetings were called off for lack of quorum.

A herd of economists had feared that the implication of cancellation of the meeting was that investors would adopt a wait-and-see attitude to know the policy direction of the apex bank before they could commit more resources into investments.

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This is so because it was to be the first meeting for this fiscal year and, therefore, was to chart a course for monetary, credit, and fiscal direction of the country.

According to them, investors are waiting, banks are waiting, the capital market is waiting and other countries are waiting for these monetary policy indicators in order to be able to take their financial and investment decisions in the economy.

The confirmed members of the MPC are Professor Adeola Festus Adenikinju; Dr Aliyu Rafindadi Sanusi, and Dr Robert Chikwendu Asogwa, while the nomination of Dr Asheikh Maidugu was rejected.

Their confirmation has put to an end the high level of suspense that heralded the nomination of some of the appointees prior to the screening exercise.

The continued rejection of Maidugu, according to CBN, was on the ground that his present position as “a regular civil servant ladened with bureaucracy and red-tapism may not be independent in his judgment on each crucial decision of the MPC that affects directly the whole economy.”

There has been no decision on what happens to the him or the slot.