HeadlineMPC Meeting Stalled Following Quorum Issues

MPC Meeting Stalled Following Quorum Issues

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BEVERLY HILLS, January 21, (THEWILL) – The inability to form a quorum has affected the first monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for 2018.

The meeting was initially scheduled for January 22-23 but the Committee could not form a quorum due to the refusal of the Senate to confirm Presidential nominees for vacant positions in the CBN.

The Committee comprises of CBN Governor, the four Deputy Governors of the bank; two members of the Board of Directors of the CBN; three members appointed by the President; and two members appointed by the Governor of the bank.

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However, at present, there are five members available whereas the second schedule of the CBN Act stipulates that he quorum is formed with 6 out of 12 members.

In October 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Aisha Ahmad as a Deputy Governor to replace Sarah Alade, who retired from the bank in June.

Adeola Adenikinju, Aliyu Sanusi, Robert Asogwa and Asheikh Maidugu were also nominated as members to fill the positions of four others whose tenure were to expire at the end of 2017 but the presidential nominees have not been considered at all.

THEWILL recalls that the Senate had on July 4 said it will suspend all executive confirmation requests until Ibrahim Magu is removed as the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a statement signed by Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, the bank revealed that pending the next MPC meeting, it will retain all monetary policy rates.

He added that the bank is determined to sustain these gains and will continue its vigilance and proactively to ensure micro-economic stability through 2018.

Read the statement below:

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) wishes to inform the general public and relevant stakeholders that the first Monetary Policy Commitee (MPC) meeting for 2018 which was scheduled for 22-23 January 2018 will not hold due to the bank’s inability to form a quorum as stipulated in the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2017.

Despite this development, we are pleased that key economic indicators continue to move in the right direction.

With modest recovery in oil prices and boost in domestic production, we exited the recession in 2017, while inflation has continued it’s decline and is now at 15.37 percent for December 2017.

Our Foreign Exchange Reserves have grown from about US$23billion in October 2016 to US$40.78 billion at the close of business on 18 January 2018.

Reflecting strong investor confidence in Nigeria, we have reached inflows of almost $13 billion since our introduction of the Investors’ and Exporters’ I&E window about nine months ago.

These inflows have boosted fx supply and helped stabilise the exchange rate. We have also seen Market Capitalization of our Stock Exchange improve by 22.3 percent from N13.21 trillion on 30 November 2017 to N16.15 trillion as of 19 January 2018 while the All Share Index (ASI) also rose by 18.8 percent from 37,944.60 to 45,092.83 over the same period.

The Management of the CBN is determined to sustain these gains and will continue our vigilance and proactively to ensure the microeconomic stability through 2018.

Under these circumstances and in the absence of a meeting of the MPC, the CBN shall continue to maintain key monetary policy variables as decided by the last MPC Meeting (November 2017) as follows:

MPR at 14.0 percent;
CRR at 22.5 percent;
Liquidity ratio at 30.0 percent; and
The Assymetric corridor at +200 and -500 basis point around the MPR.

Please note that a revised schedule of Meetings for the MPC will be communicated as soon as the bank is able to meet the statutory requirements of membership and quorum.

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