The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions has indefinetely postponed a scheduled public hearing on the proposed bills seeking to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation Acts.
Tinuke Ogunrinde, the clerk of the Senate Committee said in a statement on Tuesday that the public hearing was postponed due to conflicting schedules and clashes of national events in commemoration of the first year anniversary of President Tinubu’s administration.
She added that the minister of finance and the coordinating minister of the economy, Olawale Edun, and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, among other key stakeholders who are expected to make presentations on the critical bills, will be engaged with the president as he inaugurates and commissions several projects across the country during this period.
“Members of the public are hereby informed that the public hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions on the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (Amendment) Bills earlier scheduled for Thursday, May 30, 2024, has been postponed till further notice,” the statement read.
“A new date and time for the public hearing will be communicated.”
The Senate on February 27, 2024, passed for a second reading a bill for an Act to Amend the CBN Act No.7 2007; and on February 29, read for the second time a bill for an Act to Amend the NDIC Act No.63, 2023.
The Senate referred both bills to the Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions for further legislative action.
Both Bills were sponsored by Mukhail Abiru, chairman of the Committee and co-sponsored by 41 members of the committee.
Meanwhile, there have been growing concerns that the amendment of the CBN Act may potentially erode the independence of the apex bank and dampen the confidence of investors in the country.
