A financial expert and Professor of Financial Law at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Professor Mujahideen Oliyide, has called on the Federal Government to amend the CBN Act in order to ensure proper checks and balances at the apex bank.
Oliyide made this call during the 111th Inaugural Lecture held at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State.
He noted that proper checks and balances in the internal management and operating principles of CBN are entrenched and will enable its smooth operation with a separation of the Board and Management of the bank.
The don posited that the management should engage in the day-to-day governance of the bank, while the Board should be the highest decision-making body, charged with the responsibility of policy-making and oversight activities over the management.
While urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to appoint the most suitable person into the office of CBN governor, Oliyide equally charged members of the National Assembly to ensure that the nominee presented by Mr. President is thoroughly scrutinised before approval.
He said, “CBN Act should be amended to ensure that proper checks and balances in the internal management and operating principles of CBN are entrenched.
“This will be a safeguard against the overconcentration of internal governing powers on the CBN Governor, which could result in imperial internal governance practices. In this connection, the Board of CBN should be separated from its management.
“While the management should engage in the day-to-day governance of the bank, the Board should be the highest decision-making body and should be charged with the responsibility of policy-making and oversight activities over the management. This is the UK model and will promote corporate governance ideals within the bank.
“The Board Chairman should be a mature respectable personage of proven experience, competence, and integrity and should be appointed by the Nigerian President This will yield better results than the current situation in which both the power of oversight and of management are concentrated in the CBN Governor”.
Oliyide also disclosed that Nigeria has never made the error of appointment of such an unsuitable person to the office of CBN governor as that of Godwin Emefiele, stating that he was a wrong choice for the office of CBN governor.
He said Mr. Emefiele’s action was thus a major distraction from the very essence of his sacred office and it was glaring that the action would have a monumental propitious effect on the economic, social, and political conditions of Nigeria and Nigerians.
“CBN is currently hydra-headed and manifestly overwhelmed by the multifarious activities it, currently, engages in and should, therefore, be unbundled. A new institution should be established for the regulation of other financial institutions while CBN should concentrate on regulating money to the deepest”, the professor stated.
Oliyided argued further that the Nigerian banking sector is the headquarters of corruption in the country, pointing out that “the rationale for the assertion is that although the sector is still exclusionary, in the sense that substantial cash transactions still do not pass through the system nevertheless, it is virtually impossible for those who engage in high- volume corrupt practices, in both public and private spaces, not pass through the banking sector”.
He added: “There must be high profile connivance between those who engage in corrupt practices both public and private sectors on the one hand and bank officials, the other hand, for such practices to thrive. Experiences underpin the assertion that Nigerian bank officials help corrupt persons escape punishment by turning banks into safe havens for stolen monies insulated from the prying eyes of law enforcement officers”.
Meanwhile, the don called on the FG to lift the ban on crypto currencies, stressing that digital currencies are also a characteristic of the advancement in banking brought about by advancement in technology.
“Crypto currencies are also a characteristic of the advancement in banking brought about by advancement in technology. The term “cryptocurrencies” is a pseudonym for a widely accepted form of cyber-currency or digital or virtual legal tender.
“Crypto currencies should be legalized. This is given the enormous investment returns derivable from these virtual currencies, their pervasive popularity in the country, and because it is legalized in most progressive economies of the world.
“CBN, should, however, fashion out a robust regulatory regime for virtual currencies. ECOWAS may also consider adopting crypto currencies as the sub-regional organization’s common currency, as a way of solving the seemingly intractable problem of finding a common currency for the sub-regional organization in its sub-regional integration quest,” Oliyide submitted.
Source: The Sun
