Keynote address at the 3rd CBN Executive Seminar

Abstract

The keynote address delivered on the occasion of the third in the series of annual Central Bank of Nigeria in-house Executive Seminars organised by the Research Department in collaboration with the Personnel Department. A major objective of the Executive Policy Seminar is to update our Executive staff's knowledge and understanding of economic and financial policy issues and thereby enhance their contribution to policy design and implementation. The theme of this year's Seminar, Central Banking: A Case Study of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is highly relevant for the following reasons, namely: (1) Central Banking is our business and devoting some time to discussing it, away from the pressures of daily routine which tends to overwhelm most Executives these days, is likely to offer rather interesting insights on how we stand. (2) The CBN has for sometime now, especially in the last one year, received a rather bad press and, whether deserved or not, this is not a desirable state of affairs. It is, therefore, necessary to find out at a seminar such as this, what had gone wrong and how we could put things tight in order to redeem our dented corporate image. Of priority importance is the need to evolve an effective information management strategy to explain developments in the economy and CBN's role and measures. (3) The seminar offers an opportunity for an informed discussion on the highly topical issue of CBN autonomy.