BY EDMOND ODOK, ABUJA – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has finally confirmed that an auspicious date in April will be picked to hold its first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for the year 2018.
The Committee of 12 currently has only four members but with the Senate’s recent decision to screen and confirm nominees sent in by President Muhammadu Buhari, the coast is now clear for CBN to fill vacancies created by tenure expiration of former members.
After the botched January MPC, the meeting earlier fixed for Monday, March 19 and Tuesday, March 20 in Abuja, may likely hold in the first week of April with hints from the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele that the seven to 10 days delay would enable the apex bank have required quorum for the MPC.
Reports quoted Mr Emefiele as saying that “The MPC will certainly hold by latest the first week in April,” adding; “The good thing is that the main decision the MPC would have taken, which is bordering on price stability, or altering the price dynamic today, we are not seeing the need right now to alter the price mechanism.”
The Governor, who spoke with journalists in Sunti, Niger State where the President inspected the 50 billion Naira Sunti Sugar Factory, said the Bank’s Committee of Governors will decide on a new date for the MPC.
He expressed happiness over the Senate’s resolve to screen President Buhari’s nominees to the CBN board, saying; “What I suspect is that we will be holding our committee of governors meeting and we will decide. And I believe we will just have between seven to 10 days delay and the MPC will hold.”
The MPC meeting, saddled with the responsibility of determining monetary policy rate that affects interest rates in the nation’s banking sector, has so far witnessed hiccups this year due its inability to have a quorum.
