Business

Senate Pegs 6-year Single Term For CBN Governor, N1trn Bank Capital Base

Published

2 years ago

February 28, 2024

508 Views

In an amendment bill, the National Assembly is seeking to make the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor’s tenure one term of six years.

The amendment of the CBN Act 2007 will foreclose a renewable term for the head of the apex bank and make it a single term of six years.

The National Assembly through the Senate is also proposing N1 trillion recapitalisation for commercial banks. It presently stands at N100 billion.

As the Senate undertakes sweeping reforms in the organisation, administration and functions of CBN through an amendment bill read for second reading in plenary on Tuesday, its committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions screened nominees for board of directors of the Bank.

Proposal for six-year single term for CBN governor, deputy governors and members of board of directors, was contained in a bill seeking for an amendment of the CBN Act 2007 sponsored by Adetokunbo Abiru (APC Lagos East), chairman, Senate Committee on Banking.

Abiru, in his lead debate on the bill co-sponsored by 41 other members of the committee , said the six-year single term for CBN governor , deputy governors and board of directors was geared towards reducing political influence on them.

“The Bill proposes to amend this provision to provide a single non-renewal term of 6 years for the Governor and the Deputy Governors.

“This is the practice adopted by many independent Banks such as the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank where their chief executive officers serve only one non-renewable term.

“Empirical evidence shows that a single term for the members of the Executive and Board members of central banks helps to reduce political influence on monetary policy decisions and the time inconsistency problem associated with non-independent central banks,” he said.

Business

Cardoso Urges Banks To Lend Out Idle Funds With CBN * Retains MPR at 26.5%

Cardoso made the call on Tuesday after the 306th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja from July 20 to July 21.

Published

1 hour ago

July 21, 2026

OCHEFA

8 Views

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso , urged banks from keeping idle funds with the apex bank and encouraging increased lending into the economy.

Cardoso made the call on Tuesday after the 306th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja from July 20 to July 21.

The apex bank retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), also known as benchmark interest rate, at 26. 5 percent.

This decision marks the second consecutive retention of the MPR at 26.5 per cent, following a 50-basis-point reduction in February from 27 per cent.

“The committee’s decision to maintain the current policy stand follows a thorough assessment of the balance of risk,” said Cardoso.

He emphasised that although headline inflation moderated marginally in June 2026, global uncertainties have heightened due mainly to the renewed hostilities in the Middle East.

The MPC also adjusted the asymmetric facilities corridor around the MPR to +50/-450 basis points—a move aimed at discouraging banks from keeping idle fund with CBN.

Furthermore, the committee maintained the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks at 45 per cent, retained the rate for merchant banks at 16 per cent, and kept the CRR on non-TSA public-sector deposits at 75 per cent for liquidity management considerations.

Cardoso said despite the global uncertainties, the Nigerian economy has “remained largely resilient to the external shocks”.

Business

CBN admits it opened domiciliary accounts for PFIPC agency

Represented by the Director of its Banking Services Department, Hamisu Ibrahim, the CBN said that the accounts are one in US dollars, the other in British pounds sterling, were opened following a mandate received from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Published

10 hours ago

July 21, 2026

OCHEFA

18 Views

File photo : PFIPC agency DG, Adeniyi Adeyemi

The Central Bank of Nigeria had admitted that it opened two foreign-currency domiciliary accounts for the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).

The apex bank made the confirmation, yesterday, during the public hearing convened at the National Assembly Complex by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the existence and operations of the PFIPC, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi and inaugurated by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

He explained that on July 30, 2025, CBN received a mandate dated July 29, 2025 from the Office of the Accountant-General.

“We received the mandate to authorise two accounts, one a US dollar domiciliary account, the other a pound domiciliary account, for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council,” Ibrahim told the committee.

He explained the CBN’s verification process, “The process of opening an account requires a mandate from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

“Once we receive that mandate, we perform all the necessary verifications to confirm that this mandate is actually coming from that office.

The department that handles the mandate is different from the department that actually does the account opening,” he said.

Nevertheless, he noted that no one came to activate the accounts after they were opened.“We did not receive any correspondence, mandate, signature or mandate cards. We were not introduced to the authorising or approving officers.“Based on that, those accounts remain inactive, with zero balance. There have been no foreign exchange allocations.