The Joint Senate Committee On Finance, Banking, Insurance and Financial institutions has started interactive session with the Economic Management Team including officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) led the Governor, Yemi Cardoso.
The committee had on January 31 summoned the Central Bank Governor to appear before it.
The move comes amid pressing concerns about the state of the economy and the sharp decline of the naira in the foreign exchange market.
The Senators are asking the CBN to give explanations on the myriad of economic challenges the country is currently facing.
Senator Adetokunbo Abiru underscores the need for a forensic investigation of past transactions and the issue of compliance of the bank.
With poverty and insecurity at an all time high owing to the food crisis, the lawmakers believe that the CBN cannot convincingly tell Nigerians that its policies are working.
Meanwhile, Senator Orji Kalu maintains that the government must go back to abolish the use of dollar in business transactions as he bemoans the dwindling FDI in the country.
He also demands to know the plans of the CBN in reconciling with the NLC and TUC to avert the planned strike, a move he says will severely accentuate hunger and hardship.
The lawmakers express fear over the proposed food importation to bridge food shortage and the tendency for it to destroy the country’s food security and discourage farmers from advancing production.
According to Senator Adamu Aliero, there is absolutely no reason to revert to importation, rather the FG should focus on irrigation among others, going back to the interventionist era to improve the impact on agriculture sector.
The CBN Governor assures that Inflation is expected to decline this year using the inflation targeting framework and moderating to 21.1 percent.
To the question of ineffective policies by the CBN, he says the Market is responding to the policies put in place.
He further asserts that for the policies to be sustainable, the nation must moderate its demand for foreign exchange.
While the CBN according to him is working hard to restore credibility to the central bank, he maintains that the genuine issue impacting the exchange rate is the demand for US dollars for business and personal needs.
