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The bill for an Act to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act of 2007 passed the second reading at the Senate on Wednesday.
The bill seeks to amend the act to compel the bank to submit its budget to the National Assembly for approval every financial year as expected by law.
The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Ita Enang (PDP- Akwa Ibom), said that the Fiscal Responsibility Act of July 2007, mandating CBN to submit its budget to the National Assembly, superseded the CBN Act.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Act is later in time and therefore supersedes any provision of the CBN Act.
“But the CBN has relied on the provision in its Act to refuse to submit her budget to the National Assembly for consideration and approval, hence this bill,’’ Enang said.
He said the CBN Act of May 2007 gave the CBN Board the power to consider and approve the annual budget of the bank.
He said that it was “an affront’’ for the CBN to claim that the National Assembly had donated its authorisation to the bank by virtue of the provision of the CBN Act.’’
Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP- Abia) said the Senate must take appropriate measures to ensure that the existing laws were obeyed by government agencies.
“We have powers to make laws for the CBN. The CBN cannot on its own choose which law to obey.
“This matter was overlooked while enacting the fiscal responsibility law. There’s no other way we can help the country than to ensure that this ambiguity is corrected,’’ Abaribe said.
Also contributing, Sen. Abdul Ningi (PDP- Bauchi) said that the amendment was fundamental and deserved the support of all the legislators.
“This is an amendment that had been canvassed before 2004. The amendment calls for the support of all legislators.
“It has nothing to do with the personality of the CBN governor. This matter has been there since 1999,’’ Ningi said.
Sen. Victor Lar (PDP- Plateau) said that the amendment was not aimed at undermining the core duties of CBN.
“We are saying that whatever funds accrue to the CBN or any amount it wants to expend should go through the scrutiny of the National Assembly,’’ Lar said.
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Sen. Ekweremadu, referred the bill to the Banking and Judiciary committees for further legislative action before returning it to the floor of the Senate within two weeks. (NAN)