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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has called off the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for today, January 22 and Tuesday, January 23, 2017.
The cancellation was due to lack of quorum for MPC to hold.
The Senate had refused to confirm President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominations for the MPC. It’s not clear when the Senate would reconsider its decisions.
Statutorily, the MPC comprised twelve members, the CBN governor (chairman), the four deputy governors, two members of the CBN board of directors, three members appointed by the president and two members appointed by the governor.
Its quorum is of six members, “Two of whom shall be the governor and a deputy governor, or two deputy governors”.
As of now, the MPC has only five members. Mr Suleiman Barau, the CBN deputy governor (operations) has retired from active service. Another deputy governor, Adebayo Adelabu (corporate services) has served notice of disengagement from service, our correspondent gathered.
Recall too that President, Muhammadu Buhari, last October nominated Mrs Aisha Ahmad as deputy governor of the CBN. He also sought the confirmation of Adeola Festus Adenikinju, Aliyu Rafindadi Sanusi, Robert Chikwendu Asogwa, and Asheikh Maidugu as members of the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee.
None of the nominees has been confirmed by the Senate, thereby preventing the committee from forming a quorum. Mr Godwin Emefiele, in a press statement he personally signed allayed fears of Nigerians and the international community over the inability of the bank to hold the MPC meeting as scheduled.
Emefiele assured that a revised schedule of the meetings for the MPC would be communicated as soon as the bank meets the statutory requirements of membership and quorum.
In spite of the statutory meeting not holding in January, the CBN governor noted that key economic indicators continued to move in the right direction.
In line with analyst prediction, CBN said it would continue to maintain the key monetary variables as decided at the last MPC meeting of November 2017, which held the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 14 percent, CRR at 22.5 percent, Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent and the Asymmetric corridor at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.
Source: Daily Trust