Mr. Godwin Emefiele
Governor
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
The raging feud between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) is sure to generate negative impact on the Nigerian economy.
An Executive Director in one of the first-tier banks told Business Journal on the condition of anonymity that he was shocked to see two sister bodies that should complement each other to grow the economy fighting dirty in the public domain.
The banker said: “Ordinarily, both the CBN and NESG should be working together in terms of idea generation and implementation to tackle various issues in the nation’s socio-economic space. The NESG could serve as a think-tank to offer advisory notes to the apex bank for the good of the nation. It is therefore quite unfortunate to see them quarrelling like babies in public. I foresee negative impact of this rather curious feud for the economy considering their roles in our environment.”
Just last week, the NESG released a Report detailing its position on various policy measures taken so far by the CBN, a decision which prompted a damning response from the apex bank.
To worsen the situation, three bank chiefs on the Board of the NESG namely Mr. Adesola Adeduntan of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka of UBA Plc and Mr. Abubakar Suleiman of Sterling Bank Plc resigned from the Board of NESG in protest over the Group’s criticism of CBN policies.
