CBN: MPC nominees pledge swift action to tackle FX crisis, inflation

The nominees for membership of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have assured Nigerians that they would work to address the foreign exchange crisis as well as food inflation as soon as possible.

The Senate on Wednesday screened nominees for membership of the MPC. President Bola Tinubu last week forwarded to the Senate for confirmation the names of nominees ahead of the MPC meeting next week.

The Senate through its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions, screened six out of the 12 nominees with questions largely bordering on solutions to forex volatility and food crisis.

The first nominee to be screened was Lamido Yuguda, the director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who informed the committee that his nomination into MPC, would give the SEC, the needed voice in monetary policy.

He lamented the depreciating value of the naira but assured that the MPC, when inaugurated on Monday, would join other stakeholders to get it stabilised.

“The 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.

In his submission, the nominee from Lagos State, Mustapha Akinkunmi, said the way out now was to target the exchange rate and not inflation has been done without much result.

“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 a required increase in productivity “, he said.

In a similar submission, the nominee from Imo State, Aku Odinkemelu, said productivity is the key to arresting the volatility of the Naira and food inflation.

Other nominees, drilled at the session by the committee, were 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 remarks, the chairman of the committee, Tokunbo Abiru, told the nominees that what Nigerians expect to come after the meeting, are solutions to the rising inflation rate, worsening naira volatility in the FX market and rejuvenation of the economy generally.