Senate Committee Approves CBN Board Nominees

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions wednesday screened the five non-Executive Director nominees for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) referred to it by the Senate.

The committee headed by Senator Rafiu Ibrahim sat for about two hours from 2p.m. and screened the nominees who were escorted one after the other to the committee room by Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang.

The nominees were given five minutes to talk about their working experience before entertaining few questions from committee members after which they were asked to take a bow by the committee chairman
The five non- executive directors screened by the committee included three professors namely Ummu Jalingo (North-east), Mike Obadan (South-south) and Justina Nnabuko (South-east).

Others are Adeola Adetunji (South-west) and Dr. Abdu Abubakar (North-west).
The committee is expected to submit its report to the Senate for approval at a date to be determined by the Senate leadership
The Senate had earlier this month commenced the consideration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees for the board of the CBN, 13 months after the request was made.

President Buhari had in April 2017 forwarded the names of the nominees for the board of the CBN to the Senate for confirmation in accordance with section 6 (1) (d), and 10 (1) of the CBN Act, 2007.

The consideration was delayed following a resolution of the Senate, halting further confirmation of the president’s nominees, not captured in the constitution over the statement of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna), had last month raised the alarm that delay in the confirmation of the nominees was hindering the performance of the apex bank.
The motion for the consideration of the request was moved by the Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe), and seconded by the minority leader, Godswill Akpabio (PDP, Akwa Ibom).

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