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

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.