CBN Governor: Nigeria’s inflation, forex worrisome, I’ll tackle them

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Olayemi Cardoso, has promised to provide transparent and focused leadership with full adherence to the rules and return the apex bank to its core monetary policy responsibility.

Cardoso, former chairman of Citi Bank, said the CBN’s new management team would evolve rules that were open, transparent, and comprehensible by all players in the business sector.

He made the vow during his screening by the Senate on Tuesday, September 26, 2023.

The former Lagos State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning was screened alongside four CBN Deputy Governors by the Senate.

Cordoso, whose appointment was confirmed by the Senate, pledged to work in synergy with the fiscal authorities to promote Nigeria’s economy.

He said for 12 years, between 2010 and 2022, he served as the chairman of Citi Bank where he said “l dedicated myself to enhancing both the financial and non-financial operations of the institution”.

The CBN Governor told the Senate that the issue of exchange rate of the naira to other currencies was worrisome, adding: “For the type of economy that we want, we need to have an exchange rate that is stable and we must apply short and medium term measures to achieve this.”

On inflation and costs of goods, Cardoso said the CBN would adopt evidence-based monetary policies.

He added: “There is the need to significantly revamp the infrastructure at the Central Bank with respect to data and to ensure that our data gathering capacity is significantly enhanced.

“This is necessary so that we can make decisions based on stellar data. This is crucial in measuring inflation.”

The CBN Governor stated that reliable studies showed that in the past 10 years to 15 years, at least 50 per cent of inflation resulted from money supply and deficit financing.

“This is a big problem; at least it certainly has been over a period of time and it is something we have to face frontally,” Cardoso said.

He added that the CBN would ensure that the issue of deficit financing ceased to be a national problem.

The Star