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.
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.
Source; leadership.
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