CBN retirees urge Emefiele to honour pension review agreement

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) retirees have urged CBN governor Godwin Emefiele to implement a March 9, 2017 agreement on review of their pension and medical allowance.

They congratulated him on his re-appointment, saying it was well deserved.

CBN Pensioners’ Welfare Association (CPWA) chairman Bayo Ademola and General Secretary Felix Obi, in a statement on Monday, expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for re-appointing Emefiele.

“Your re-appointment by Mr. President in the first place and the subsequent very swift confirmation by the Senate is a veritable testimony to the fact of their assessment and verdict that your overall performance during your first term was very satisfactory.

“We candidly hold the same view. Accordingly, we have also sent a thank you letter to President Buhari.

“We are, therefore, particularly happy with your re-appointment primarily for the simple fact that you are already conversant with our problems, that is, matters relating to our welfare that are awaiting your necessary action.

“We specifically refer here to the agreement reached after the meetings between the representatives of the CBN management and CBN pensioners for the upward review of pensions and a significant enhancement of the medical allowance payable to pensioners, for which a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U) was signed by both parties on 9th March, 2017.

“It is very likely that appointing a new person as CBN Governor now would have further delayed action on its implementation as he or she would have required more time to settle down before taking any action in that direction.

“We, therefore, hope that now that the issue of your second term has been settled, you would accord CBN Pensioners’ welfare matters the urgency they deserve.”

The retirees praised Emefiele for achieving exchange rate stability at N360 to a dollar in the parallel market for over two years.

They commended him for formulating and sustaining appropriate monetary policy measures that have led to a steady growth of foreign reserves from less than $30 billion in 2015 to about $50 billion.

They hailed CBN’s intervention under Emefiele’s leadership in promoting increased agricultural productivity, particularly rice production, through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).

The retirees said the programme has resulted in a significantly enhanced rice output, thereby reducing the outflow of scarce foreign exchange that would have been required for large scale importation of the commodity.

“For all these and more, we heartily hail your re-appointment. We only hope that you will even do better in your second term as you have promised to extend the CBN’s interventionist agenda to other sectors of the economy like the revival and enhancement of palm oil, cotton and cocoa production in the course of your second term,” the statement added.