Capital market operators want representation in MPC board

There are increasing calls for the government to appoint a representative from the capital market into the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Operators of the market, who made the call opined that the capital market was not considered whenever MPC members met to take decisions.

They insisted that appointing a capital market representatives as a member of the board would make policies to be in tandem with the goals and aspirations of the capital market.

According to the Managing Director of Highcap Securities Limited, Imafidon Adonri, the interest of market operators will be on the table when there was a representative of capital market.

“In the past, certain policies have favored the money market and certain policies have tended to drive up interest rate in the economy which is unfriendly to the development and growth of the equities market and the real sector because the members of the MPC only look at the money market aspect where as the capital market person will look at the impact on the capital market, the real sector and advice accordingly.

“A lot of operators in the central bank only feel that their responsibility is for the money market and banking system but when we were going through a training in finance, we were told that that the CBN is at the apex of the financial system which means that the CBN has responsibility for every aspect of the financial system because both their actions and pronouncement affects every area of the financial system and the economy at large.

“So whenever they come up with policies or statements they should look at the sensitivity of the capital market to those statements a lot of policies and statements that come from them are inimical to the good performance of the capital market, which is unfortunate.”

Also speaking, Managing Director of Pivot Capital Limited, Dare Adejumo explained that a representative from the capital market should be in that committee because the market is the barometer of the entire economy.“Yes, it is not a bad idea. Our market is the barometer for gauging the economy so we need to be represented.”