Says limiting the apex bank’s autonomy will incapacitate economy
A Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Sarah Alade, has cautioned the Senate against limiting the autonomy of the apex bank.
Alade, who expressed the view while being screened by the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial institutions, said removal of CBN autonomy could collapse the economy.
“Once the autonomy of the CBN is tampered with, then it becomes incapacitated,” she said.
“It then becomes easy for government to wake up and ask the bank to print more money to meet certain expenditure and the economy will collapse.”
Alade, who was being screened for a second tenure, said any attempt to tamper with the CBN autonomy would put the economy at risk.
She added there was nothing wrong with the 6.9 billion dollars external loan being sought by the Federal Government, as long as the government would use it to create employment.
“We do not want the debt to be too much because of the capacity to service it,” Alade said.
She also noted that the failure of banks should not be blamed on consolidation, because the exercise put the banks in a position to withstand financial crisis.
There is currently a bill before the National Assembly seeking to make CBN subject its budget to the scrutiny of the legislature.
