As Nigerians eagerly look forward to the next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Many are hopeful that the newly screened members will be able to inject fresh ideas to address the dollar/naira exchange rate crisis.
The first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is coming up next week and Nigerians are expecting a positive outcome.
Discussion around how to tame the rising inflation and address food shortage in the country will be on the front burner of their discourse.
Not forgetting the foreign exchange crisis that is rocking the nation.
But as the waiting continues, proposed new members of the committee were screened by the Senate in Wednesday.
Senate Committee Screens MPC Nominees
The names of the candidates to be screened was forwarded to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu last week.
Screening of the proposed MPC members was done by Senate through its Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions.
Only six of the 12 nominees were screened with questions largely bordering on solutions to forex volatility and food crisis.
Names Of 6 MPC Nominees Screened By Senate Committee
- Lamido Yuguda
- Mustapha Akinkunmi
- Aku Odinkemelu
- Murtala Sagagi
- Bamidele Amoo
- Aloysius Uche Ordu
The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lamido Yuguda, was the first nominee to be screened.
He informed the committee that his nomination into MPC, would give the SEC, the needed voice in monetary policy.
Yuguda said the Naira as of today, has lost its intrinsic value but the MPC, would join other stakeholders to stabilize it.
See What The Nominees Are Bringing To The Table
“The value of any currency is measured by the goods and services that it can buy, the Naira as of today, does not possess that value sufficiently,“ he said.
According to the second nominee Mustapha Akinkunmi, the way out is to target the Exchange rate and not Inflation.
“A more proactive way of addressing the Naira volatility problem is for the CBN to target the Exchange Rate itself and not Inflation.
” The Inflation the country is facing now is largely that of food inflation, which is beyond CBN.
”Increased production and distribution of food commodities across the country would help to reduce the food inflation.
However, aggressive target of Exchange rate would help to stabilize the Naira with a required increase in productivity,“ he said.
The third nominee, Aku Odinkemelu, said productivity is the key to arresting the volatility of the Naira and food inflation.
Other nominees, drilled at the session by the committee, were Murtala Sagagi from Kano State, Bamidele Amoo from Kwara State.
A former staff of the World Bank and Africa Development Bank Aloysius Uche Ordu, was also screened.
Expectations Of Nigerians From The MPC Meeting
Nigerians have huge expectations from the forthcoming MPC meeting.
Banks and businesses alike are hopeful that the committee will not increase the interest rate this time.
The Chairman of the Committee, Tokunbo Abiru, in clear terms told the nominees the expectations of Nigerians from the MPC meeting.
He said, “Nigerians expect solutions to the rising inflation rate, worsening Naira volatility in the FX market, and rejuvenation of the economy generally.”