The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly give his assent to the three Financial System Strategy 2020 bills, which were recently passed by the National Assembly.
The bills are the Nigerian Financial Sector Bill, Nigerian Financial Ombudsman Bill and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Bill.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, made the appeal while speaking at the E-Government Summit 2015 with the theme, “E-Government: Key to sustainable development’.
He said the plea had become imperative since the bills had suffered a seven -year sojourn at the National Assembly before they were eventually passed by the Seventh Assembly recently.
He said in view of the importance of the bill, there was the need to give it speedy assent to pave the way for the establishment of an international financial centre in Abuja and the other ancillary requirements in line with international best practice.
Represented at the event by the Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Suleiman Barau, he said, “The CBN is ready to support the E-Governance project in Nigeria as way of deepening payment system in the country as well, as help enthrone transparency and accountability.
“It is in this light that the CBN has been supportive of the FSS2020 project as a way of establishing an international financial centre in Abuja with all the benefits accruable from the establishment like the Dubai model.
“Consequently, we appeal for the President to give assent to the three FSS 2020 bills before him to pave the way for the realisation of the vision.
“These three bills are unique in a sense that it took the National Assembly seven years to pass them and it was only coincidental that they were only passed at the dying days of the last Seventh Assembly.
“We therefore plead that Mr. President takes time out and look at the bills and accord them his assent because they will help to move this country forward.”
The Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Willy Obiano, who spoke at the event, said the deployment of Information and Communications Technology in the state’s governance structure had increased its internally generated revenue from N500m to N1.4bn a month.
According to him, the move has helped the state to fight crime, improve its security network and manage workforce by building a comprehensive data bank for the state.
Obiano urged other state governors to adopt e-governance in their states to improve their revenue and catch up with the change in global technology.
