Senate confirms Cardoso as CBN Governor, 4 deputies

By Adekunle Adesuji, Abuja

The Senate, on Tuesday, confirmed the nomination of Olayemi Cardoso as the substantive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

In addition, the Red Chamber confirmed the nomination of four deputy governor nominees for the apex bank.

The deputy governors confirmed were Emem Nnana Usoro, Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, Philip Ikeazor, and Bala Bello.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, made this known at its plenary on Tuesday.

Cadoso with four deputies were confirmed after screening by the lawmakers who subjected them to series of questions bordering on economy and monetary policy .

Speaking earlier , Cadoso said if they are confirmed, the immediate plan to stablise the naira would be for the apex bank to settle some financial obligations and make “transparent rules”.

He said, “Number one is what I will term an ‘operational issue’. Right now we have a situation where – we are aware that there are unsettled obligations by the CBN.

“Whether it is 4 billion, 5 billion or 7 billion I don’t know but definitely the immediate priority will be to verify the authenticity and extent of what is owed.

“Number two, apart from the operational there is one that is system related that involves ensuring that we come up with rules that are open, transparent that any of the players in that area understands. We can expect foreign investors, portfolio investors – we can’t expect them if there is no open transparent system that everyone understands.

“In setting up those guidelines one will carry the relevant stakeholders along and the comment was made earlier that one should be ready to engage everybody and hear views.

“With those two things, though they may seem simple, will go a long way to ease up the restrictions we are having on people that want to come in.”

Cardoso also said to tackle the country’s inflation, the CBN would roll out evidence-based policies.