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Again, CBN cancels MPC meeting for lack of quorum

By Mathias Okwe, Assistant Business Editor, Abuja
16 March 2018   |   4:23 am
The highest monetary policy body meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), will not be holding on March 19 and 20, 2018 as scheduled.

Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele. / AFP PHOTO / PHILIP OJISUA

May hold emergency one after clearance of nominees by Senate
The highest monetary policy body meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), will not be holding on March 19 and 20, 2018 as scheduled.

The cancellation of the meeting for the second time this year was due to the inability of the composition of a quorum as a result of the delay in the clearance of the two nominees for the deputy governors’ positions forwarded to the Senate last year.

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who confirmed the postponement again yesterday during the inspection of the Sunti Sugar Factory owned by the Flour Mills of Nigeria and part-funded by the CBN, expressed the readiness of the committee to hold an emergency MPC meeting one week to 10 days anytime from the nominees’ confirmation.

Statutorily, the committee meets six times a year- once, every two months to review the effect of its immediate adopted policies on the economy and re-adopt them or change them to achieve the set objectives of its monetary policy direction aimed particularly at price stability.

Out of these six meetings, the CBN Act 2007 mandates the committee to meet at least four times in a year.

Emefiele said: “I am delighted that the Senate has decided to screen the nominees earlier sent to them by the President. We will have a few days’ delay. MPC meeting is supposed to hold on March 19 and 20, 2018. What I suspect is that we will be holding our committee of governors’ meeting and we will decide. And I believe we will just have between seven to 10 days’ delay and the MPC will hold.”

The CBN governor, who spoke on the success of the sugar factory, which benefited from the CBN’s intervention, noted that “with the success of this sugar factory, nothing is impossible and no hurdle is insurmountable, that we could see this happen in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country endowed with a lot of resources, youths, intelligent people and good soil. I believe we can do it. I want to repeat the promise I have made, if any company is interested in any agricultural, agro-allied and agro-processing industry, we are ready to support them.”

Also yesterday, the CBN deposit money banks and other stakeholders in the financial sector agreed on ways to bring in additional 7.6 million Nigerians into the banking sector in 2018.

The CBN Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Dr Okwu Nnanna, who spoke at the Financial Inclusion State Steering Committee (FISSCO) regional capacity-building programme in Abuja, said all stakeholders were important in achieving the set target.

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