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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Paymenex Limited, Dr. Kingsley Aguoru, has strongly supported the reforms of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Aguoru, speaking with journalists in Owerri, the Imo State capital, argued that the apex bank has taken on too many roles beyond its original mandate, becoming “too big, yet delivering too little.”
He said that the CBN’s expected role as apex bank is clear and focused: managing monetary policy, stabilising the naira, controlling inflation, safeguarding reserves, and ensuring systemic financial stability.
However, he noted that in practice the CBN had become a catch-all regulator, now performing duties that should properly belong to a separate financial services authority.
“The CBN has become regulator, operator, banker, and developer, all at once. Such a wide portfolio creates internal conflict of interest and weakens policy oversight. You can’t be the umpire, the player, and the referee in the same match.”
He noted that this “jack-of-all-trades” model makes the bank cumbersome and reactive, rather than strategic, overburdened with administrative complexity while key areas like compliance monitoring, risk control and transparency suffer.
Aguoru, therefore, advocated for functional unbundling, suggesting that regulatory and supervisory functions be carved out into independent authorities, enabling the CBN to return to its core monetary and stability duties.
“A Central Bank should be lean, analytical, and policy-focused, not managing grants, fintech licenses, and agricultural loans. The current structure is simply unsustainable,” he added.
