The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has explained that the current move to relocate departments and personnel to other branches especially Lagos is due to overpopulation at the headquarters in Abuja.
This was made known by Cardoso while speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Monday, February 5, 2024, in reaction to the controversy that has trailed the apex bank’s decision since its announcement.
Cardoso, who expressed disappointment at the sensational slant to the issue, said the process was normal for any vibrant entity like a central bank.
Ensure more geographical spread of talent
The CBN Governor pointed out that the move was to align the bank’s structure with its functions and objectives and redistribute skills to ensure a more even geographical spread of talent.
- He said, “I think there’s been an attempt to sensationalise what is a normal process for any vibrant entity like a central bank. Bear in mind that as a national institution, the central bank has a presence in every state of the federation.
- “A situation where a large number of technical skills are in one particular location to the detriment of others does not speak well. So this has been an attempt to realign that and to ensure that skills are moved from where there’s an overabundance to where there’s a great shortage of those skills. So that’s basically what that is about.
- “And with respect to Lagos which you mentioned, from our perspective, it makes a lot of sense that the entities which we are attempting to regulate and need to be on top of that are based in Lagos and they should have the right skills from the central bank right next to them so they can adequately and effectively do their jobs.”
We are hoping to ease the overpopulation
When asked if the CBN headquarters was above its carrying capacity, Cardoso replied in affirmation, stating,
- “It is overpopulated. And with what we are doing right now, we are hoping that will also help in easing the issue of overpopulation, which it is.
- “And quite frankly, anybody that comes to the bank and interacts on that level will see that it is. It is overpopulated. And we’ve got to ensure that we can manage potential issues that could fall out from an overpopulated environment.”