How CBN plans to stabilise naira, slow inflation – Cardoso

Our reporter/ The newly confirmed governor of Nigeria’s central bank, Olayemi Cardoso on Tuesday spoke on his plans to stabilise the country’s foreign exchange (FX) market and slow inflation.

Cardoso gave details of the plan during his confirmation hearing and that of four CBN deputy governor nominees at the senate on Tuesday.

Nigeria’s national currency, the Naira has been on a free fall since the beginning President Bola Tinubu’s tenure and fell to an all-time low of N1,000 to the dollar on Tuesday.

But answering questions from lawmakers during the confirmation hearing, Cardoso said if they are confirmed, the immediate plan to stablise the naira would be to prioritize settlement of some financial obligations and make “transparent rules”.

“Number one is what I will term an ‘operational issue’. Right now we have a situation where – we are aware that there are unsettled obligations by the CBN,” he said.

“Whether it is 4 billion, 5 billion or 7 billion I don’t know but definitely the immediate priority will be to verify the authenticity and extent of what is owed.

“Number two, apart from the operational there is one that is system related that involves ensuring that we come up with rules that are open, transparent that any of the players in that area understands. We can expect foreign investors, portfolio investors – we can’t expect them if there is no open transparent system that everyone understands.

“In setting up those guidelines one will carry the relevant stakeholders along and the comment was made earlier that one should be ready to engage everybody and hear views.

“With those two things, though they may seem simple, will go a long way to ease up the restrictions we are having on people that want to come in.”

He furtherstatedthat the apex bank would roll out evidence-based policies to tackle the country’s inflation.

“There will be a need to significantly revamp the infrastructure in the CBN with respect to data. We will ensure that our data gathering capacity is significantly enhanced that is key in measuring your inflation,” he said.