The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Mr Godwin Emefiele shall
vigorously pursue a development banking model (DBM) in addition to
working hard to achieve the core mandate of monetary and price
stability.
The nominee for CBN governor made the point at the Senate yesterday
during his screening and eventual confirmation.
The Zenith Bank group managing director will replace the suspended
apex bank governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, whose tenure expires
in June.
Emefiele, who looked calm and confident, told the senators that DBM
is a model that has been tried and tested in different jurisdictions
in the world. “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 industrialization,” he
stressed, adding that the model has helped Latin American countries
including Brazil and Mexico to achieve economic growth and
development, leading to Brazil emerging as one of the BRIC countries
with a high potential for playing an increasing role in the world
economy.
Emefiele also assured that the CBN under his watch will pay attention
to job creation, describing the nation’s unemployment situation as an
emergency.
He stated: “We would ensure that, if approved, whatever monetary
policy decisions that would be taken would be those that would improve
the level of employment in Nigeria; we know that employment is very
important. We know today that we have an employment emergency in
Nigeria.
“And we must ensure that whatever decisions we take at the CBN in the
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would be those that would lead to
improvement in the level of employment in Nigeria. We would ensure
that we work with the manufacturing companies to ensure that we
improve on their level of production and by extension ensure that we
improve and achieve economic growth in Nigeria.”
The Zenith Bank helmsman was unhappy about attempts to dollarise the
nation’s economy and pledged to do everything to discourage the
attempt. He also committed to working for complementarity between
monetary and fiscal policy, arguing that a harmonious relationship
between the monetary and fiscal authorities was in the overall
interest of the country.
The Senate yesterday unanimously confirmed Emefiele’s appointment as
CBN governor, just as it also confirmed the appointment of Hon. Zainab
Balkachuwa as the president of the Appeal Court.
President Goodluck Jonathan had earlier forwarded the names of
Emefiele and Balkachuwa to the Senate for consideration and
confirmation as CBN boss and Appeal Court president respectively.
The Senate grilled the current Zenith Bank boss, Emefiele, for two hours.
Contrary to popular opinion that the economy of the country is stable
with $39bn in foreign reserves, he maintained that there should be a
synergy between the CBN and the Ministry of Finance to achieve
economic growth.
On her part, during the Senate screening, Hon. Zainab Balkachuwa
decried the poor funding of the judiciary. Most judges in Nigeria,
she said, are computer Illiterates.
Said she: “We are the biggest court in the country. We have 90
justices as at now. We have 16 divisions of the Court of Appeal. But
our budget this year is N10.1billion. The justices have their
salaries, allowances which should be charged on the consolidated
revenue fund. So if you take that out of the N10.1billion what are you
left with? Then, we need courts and houses for our justices but we
cannot continue.
“And then we have so many houses of the justices;they are dilapidated;
they are out of fashion. Like the ones in Lagos, they are the old
colonial houses that were given to our justices since the Supreme
Court days because we inherited both the houses and the courts from
the Supreme Court. We cannot renovate them because we lack the funding
to do that. Some of our houses are in a sorry state. If our justices
are comfortable, I assure, you have the best set of judges in Nigeria.
“It takes me also to the dwindling budget of the Judiciary. I don’t
allocate the budget; I am just confined to what we have and we have
been trying to manage as much as we can. But we had to cry out. That
is why we cried out last year and we are still crying out. We need our
budget to be looked into. We need to have tools because our tools are
our books, comfortable quarters and then comfortable houses.
“A judge will sit in court maybe till 5 o’ clock. He will go back home
maybe rest for two hours and then he will spend the whole night
working and then come back to the court the next morning. So if his
condition is perfect or if his condition is manageable, I am sure we
will have more production.”
Congratulating Emefiele and Bulkachuwa, Senate president David Mark
charged them to add value to their fields.
Mark said, “These are two very key appointments and the amount of time
we spent on it is a clear indication of the importance that we attach
to these confirmations. The two people involved are very distinguished
Nigerians and our prayers would go with them that Justice Bulkachuwa
would deliver justice on time and Emefiele would ensure that he does
the prescribed responsibilities of the governor of the Central Bank
without fear or favour.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Banking and Finance screened the
nominee for the position of the deputy governor of the CBN, Adelabu
Adebayo Adekola. He may be confirmed next week by the Senate.
