Breaking: Senate confirms Cardoso, 4 others as CBN governor, deputies

CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso

The Senate has confirmed the appointment of Dr Olayemi Cardoso as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The Senate also confirmed the appointment of four other nominees as CBN Deputy Governors.

The four deputy governors of the apex bank are Mrs Emem Usoro, Mr Muhammad Dattijo, Mr Philip Ikeazor, and Dr Bala Bello.

They were confirmed on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, following a screening by the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

Speaking, Cardoso 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”.

He told the Senate that the issue of exchange rate of the naira to other currencies was worrisome.

“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,” he stated.

Cardoso added that the CBN’s new management team would evolve rules that were open and transparent and comprehensible by all players in the business sector.

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.

Cardoso also told the Senate that the CBN would ensure that the issue of deficit financing ceased to be a national problem.

Earlier, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, said the lawmakers reconvened from their annual recess to expeditiously consider and confirm the nominees.

Akpabio said the expeditious confirmation also resulted from of the emergency resignation of former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

He, therefore, urged the Senate Committees on Finance and Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to regularly conduct a thorough oversight of the CBN.

President Bola Tinubu had, on September 15, approved the nomination of Cardoso to serve as the new CBN Governor, following the resignation of Emefiele.

Tinubu also approved the nomination of four deputy governors for a term of five years each at the first instance, pending their confirmation by the Senate.

The Star