A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, has backed the recent decision to relocate the apex bank’s key departments to Lagos.
The CBN during the week announced plans to decongest its Abuja head office by moving 1,533 staff to other facilities in the city, Lagos, and understaffed branches.
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According to a memo released by CBN, the affected departments include Banking Supervision, Other Financial Institutions Supervision, Consumer Protection, Payment System Management, and Financial Policy Regulations, among others.
Moghalu, who reacted to the development in a post on his X handle on Sunday, described the move as rational.
He said the market entities supervised by the affected departments are mostly in Lagos State.
He also voiced concern over the disquiet caused by the move among staff of the apex bank.
Moghalu wrote: “I have seen reports of disquiet” among some @cenbank staffers over the Bank management’s decision to move some of its departments to the CBN Lagos office.
“I don’t see any serious basis for such disquiet. A new Lagos Office for the Bank was completed and inaugurated about 12 years ago while I was at the bank. As far as I can remember, it was under-utilized.”
Moghalu is the founder of Sogato Strategies LLC, a global investment advisory firm, and the president of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET), a public policy think tank. He is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Council on Emerging Market Enterprises at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and has served as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Special Envoy on Post-Covid Development Finance for Africa.
Moghalu is the chairman of the board of directors of the Africa Private Sector Summit (APSS)[9][10] and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a network of global asset management firms, sovereign wealth and pension funds.