By Sunday Etuka, Abuja
The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions has described as misleading the report that the National Assembly is planning to transfer interest rate decisions from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to a Committee to be chaired by the Minister of Finance.
This clarification was contained in a statement issued on Friday by the Special Adviser to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Prof. Uche Uwaleke.
The report which was published on The Nation of Friday, May 31, 2024 had alleged that a bill, titled “An Act to Amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act No. 7 of 2007,” would allow the transfer of CBN’s
authority to set interest rates to a newly proposed Coordinating Committee for Monetary and Fiscal Policies, which will be headed by the Minister of Finance.
While dismissing the report as untrue, Prof. Uwaleke explained that the fact is that the amendment Bill proposed a Coordinating Committee as an institutional framework for the alignment of fiscal and monetary policies, adding, that its aim is neither to usurp the roles of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank nor weaken the instrument independence of the CBN.
Prof. Uwaleke further explicated that “for the avoidance of doubt, section 12 of the current Act establishes the Monetary Policy Committee, as well as stipulates its functions and composition. These provisions are all retained in the amendment Bill”.
He, however, informed that “in view of the controversy this has generated, the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions has postponed the planned public hearing to allow for further consultations with and inputs from key stakeholders”.
