Recession, forex crisis weaken experts to assess 3 years of Emefiele at CBN
It would be recalled that following the disquiet circumstance leading the ouster of former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and current Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido, former managing director of Zenith Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele was named by the then President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the Governor.
Last week marked his three years into a five-year first term in office and industry analysts have been looking at his activities within the period.
According a top banker working with one of the new generation banks who spoke to Business Hilights on phone on Wednesday, “At onset, things were going well till after a year and some months into his leadership. Moreover, the state of the nation and the economy now, cannot be a better scenario to truly assess him on the job even though he ought to have advised the government of the impending recession crisis which he never did after all.”
According to the banker who pleaded anonymity, “The cause of the recession would have been avoided if the monetary wind of the advisory council which he heads had done its home work very well immediately this government came on board”.
Earlier on Tuesday during plenary a lawmaker, Bala Na’Allah, deputy leader of the Senate, averred that CBN has lost its grip on the country’s banking industry, noting that the sector has become a cartel which has the capacity to manipulate the country’s fiscal and monetary policies.
In his submission during the debate on a motion entitled ‘Dire need for a stakeholders’ roundtable to address increasing interest rates in Nigeria’, he was straight in his presentation, saying “The best approach to this is to be honest and sincere to ourselves; to look at the banking sector in Nigeria and see whether it can truly be called a banking sector that is sensitive to the development of this country”.
“First, we must admit the fact that we have one of the most unpredictable economies in the world and the reason being that the CBN has lost its grip (on the sector). In one day it is the regulator and participant in the banking industry and in another day it even goes outside its mandate.
“What explains this is simple: our investors in the banking sector have constituted themselves into a cartel and, therefore, they possess the capacity to manipulate the fiscal and monetary policies, and ensure that at no time will the two come together for the purpose of stabilising the economy. When it stabilises, they become the losers.”
Whereas the deputy senate leader said the banking sector did not appear like it was sensitive to the country’s development, sponsor of the motion, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, representing Kwara south said time has come for synergy between the monetary and fiscal policy makers.
The senate after the debates, adopted the motion after it was put to a voice vote by Senate president, Bukola Saraki, that the Committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions to organise a roundtable with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), deposit money banks, Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) as well as other relevant stakeholders and industry experts.
Besides, ordinary Nigerians on the street were divided on whether Emefiele has done well or not as many believed that the cause of the downturn on the economy was due to policy summersaults’ by the federal government that came with the ‘Change Agenda’.
