CBN governor yesterday announced major changes in the bank by reassigning the deputy governors. Emefiele in line with his vision of entrenching a more professional and people-focused central bank, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has approved the redeployment of Deputy Governors in the Bank.
With the new changes, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, Deputy Governor, Corporate Services Directorate is now the Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate. Dr. Kingsley Moghalu currently the Deputy Governor, Operations, returns to the Financial Systems Stability (FSS) Directorate while Mr. Adebayo Adelabu who was in charge of Financial Systems Stability (FSS) is now the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services. Dr. Sarah Alade retains her position as the Deputy Governor, Economic Policy Directorate.
These redeployments, which take effect from Monday 23rd June 2014, are expected to contribute to the Bank’s vision of being the Model Central Bank delivering Price and Financial System Stability and promoting sustainable Economic Development.
Our esteemed stakeholders and the general public are requested to take note of the changes.
Mr. Emefiele, during his confirmation hearing at the Senate said CBN, under him shall vigorously pursue a development banking model, DBM, in addition to working hard to achieve the core mandate of monetary and price stability.Emefiele had told the senators that DBM is a model that has been tried and tested in different jurisdictions in the world.
He had told the senators that “in fact, in some of the frontiers and emerging markets in the world, we have seen development banking used as a tool for achieving economic growth, development and industrialisation.”
At his maiden press briefing in Abuja he said “The vision of the Central Bank of Nigeria is to “be the Model Central Bank delivering price and financial system stability and promoting sustainable economic development”.
This vision draws inspiration from our understanding of the multiple mandate of the Bank to pursue both price and financial system stability as well as provide complementary developmental functions by creating an environment for Nigerians to live better and more fulfilled lives. Rather than being competing goals, as some may argue, these mandates are truly complementary.
In fact, price stability can rarely be adjudged a goal in itself except cast against the ultimate objective of improvement in the quality of life. Price stability, therefore, remains a cardinal contribution, indeed a cornerstone, to the ultimate goal of economic development. I believe that reasonably stable prices provide a catalyst for rational consumption and investment decisions and for orderly economic progress. That is why throughout most of economic history, periods of price and financial system stability have coincided with economic growth and development.
In order to realize the CBN’s vision, therefore, I believe we must start with championing policies that promote the sustainability of our hard-earned macroeconomic stability.
“We shall pursue a gradual reduction in interest rates. A comparison of selected macroeconomic aggregates from some emerging market countries including South Africa, Brazil, India, China, Turkey, and Malaysia indicate that Nigeria has one of the highest T-bill rates. Such high rates create a perverse incentive for commercial banks to simply buy virtually risk-free government bonds rather than lend to the real sector.
To enhance financial access and reduced borrower cost of credit, we would pursue policies targeted at making Nigeria’s T-bill rates more comparable with other emerging markets and by extension, pursue a reduction in both deposit and lending rates. While a reduction in deposit rates would encourage investment attitudes in savers, a reduction in lending rates would make credit cheaper for potential investors. The Bank would also begin to include the unemployment rate as one of the key variables considered for its Monetary Policy decisions. In the interim, we would continue to maintain a monetary policy stance, reflecting the liquidity conditions in the economy as well as the potential fiscal expansion in the run-up to the 2015 General Elections.
