Reform: Sanusi is Courageous, Says Oshiomhole

Written by This Day Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole yesterday commended the reform efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in the banking sector stressing that it has “directly or indirectly” benefitted both the rich and poor in the country.

He gave the approval during a courtesy visit to the governor at the CBN head office in Abuja.
According to him, “Governor Sanusi has demonstrated uncommon courage in looking at people who by their very privileged position seem to have been operating above the law -we could describe them as the untouchables.

Over the course of few months in office, Nigerians are now better informed about the challenges that we have in the banking sector and people generally have greater confidence in the operations of the bank.

“For me, it is not exposing these wrongdoing that is important, but even more important is the fact that because you put an end to that, funds that will otherwise been ‘privatised’ is now available and those of us in public and private sector can now access credit at a rate that is relatively far more than what was the case before his assumption of office.”

He said further that the CBN action has helped to deepen understanding of the extent of corruption in the country, adding that "before now, the general belief is that we have corruption in government which is true.”
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole, while fielding questions from journalists, said the value of monthly internally generated revenue in the state stood at over N1 billion.

He said the state plans to source for additional capital to carry out its infrastructure project by going to the capital market but he would not give the time and amount it intends to source.

He said contrary to criticisms and speculations from some quarters that the state may have borrowed money from banks to finance capital projects, thereby incurring huge debt; all the revenue so far used for capital projects have been sourced internally.

Oshiomhole also described as "lopsided" the existing revenue allocation formula urging action at reviewing adding that he was not particularly satisfied with the management of Federation Account.
“They have not been transparent in the management of the federation account,” he said.