CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

James Emejo

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Wednesday refuted media reports that it had shunned the planned probe by the House Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Finance, and States and Local Government to ascertain the implementation level of the Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P programme).

The absence of CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke; Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Minister of Transportation, Senator Abdullahi Umar; Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu; Minister of Niger Delta, Mr. Godsday Orubebe; Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Emeka Worgu, was said to have forced the House of Representatives to postpone the proposed probe of the SURE-P.

But, speaking in a telephone chat with THISDAY yesterday, CBN Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Ogochukwu Okoroafor, said  the apex bank had been cooperating with the panel and had provided it with the information as demanded.

He said: "Ours is very simple: what they expect from us is very small and we are getting it to them. The governor was away to Davos, which started yesterday. But then, it's not really the governor, what they want is some information which we are getting ready to send to them and there's no problem on that."
According to him: "We have been in touch with them; we have already had discussions with them today (yesterday). What they are asking is just a follow-up to the information we have already provided. We would make it available to them between today and tomorrow (today).