Why Nigeria must rethink financial system regulation – Emefiele

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin I. Emefiele, has said that there was an urgent need to rethink financial system regulation, supervision and monetary policy implementation in view of the evolution of FinTechs, cryptocurrencies, digital payments, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

All of these, he said, have changed the functioning of the financial and banking sectors, both globally and domestically.

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Emefiele stated this yesterday while delivering a keynote address at the 2022 Retreat of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) themed: ‘Monetary Policy Implementation in a Digitally Evolving Developing Economy’ and held at Lakowe Lakes and Golf Resort, Lagos.

According to him, though the innovations come with a lot of risks and uncertainties for the sectors, they also have many benefits for positive economic transformation and particularly, financial inclusion which he said has been the principal catalyst for inclusive growth, poverty reduction and employment generation.

He noted that monetary policy has been severely challenged, as its policy space narrowed significantly, in some cases, “paradoxically and necessitating the need to rethink monetary policy in the context of emerging challenges and economic transformation.”

The apex bank he said has championed the financial inclusion principle to achieve the SDGs, including the recent launch of the eNaira (CBDC) to capture the large unbanked populace into the formal sectors and also improve monetary policy efficiency and positive impact on the better standard of living for the population.