Cardoso, Edun, Others Appear Before Senate Committee

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has addressed Senator Adetokunbo Abiru, APC Lagos, East-led Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Institutions.

Edun, who led the economic team, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, as well as the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, spoke on the state of the economy and the free flow of the naira in the forex market.

The Senate, last week summoned the Governor of CBN to appear before it on Tuesday next week on the state of the economy and the free flow of naira in the forex market.

The Senate summoned the CBN Governor through Senator Adetokunbo Abiru, the APC Lagos East-led Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Institutions.

The Committee hurriedly met on Wednesday when the Naira jumped to N1,520 to a US dollar and resolved to summon the CBN governor on the way out.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting held behind closed doors, Senator Abiru, who noted that the state of the economy, especially the inflation index, was of great concern to the lawmakers, said, “We have held a meeting this afternoon essentially to focus on the direction of the Nigerian economy.

“We are all living witnesses of what is going on. Underscoring the major issue of the economy is the way the inflation index has been, and of course, it is a major concern to us.

“We have deliberated among ourselves. Critical issues were addressed, and we believe that the next line of action is to summon the governor of the Central Bank on Tuesday at 3 o’clock to brief us on the state of the economy.

“That we have resolved and will communicate to the governor of the Central Bank, after which we will have further communication with members of the press.”