The House of Representatives Committee on Finance, has honoured the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for “its dedication and commitment to national growth and development through consistent and timely contributions to the revenues of the Federal Government”.

Other government agencies that received the recognition award included the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Chairman of the committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, noted that although CBN was not strictly a revenue centre, the singular act of generating and remitting revenues showed “mark of a responsible public institution and should be commended by all”.

In the ceremony, which is the first of its kind in the history of the National Assembly, Jibrin explained that the committee decided to recognise the commendable efforts of the agencies in order to show that in the exercise of its oversight functions, the National Assembly would not hesitate to recognise performing public institutions and reprimand non-performing ones.

“This committee has decided to issue this commendation because it is proper to separate the compliant from the non-compliant. Moreover, we know that public institutions are managed by human beings and we believe that to change human behaviour for the better, three things can be done.

“One is to employ sanctions, give rewards for desired behaviour and the combination of the two. We have chosen to recognise compliant institutions based on our strong conviction that the time has come for public officers to imbibe self-compliance when obedience to law and the delivery of common good are concerned,” he said.

The committee further noted that the CBN remains the largest contributor to Consolidated Revenue Fund by way of internally generated revenue (IGR) to the tune of N180.9 billion during the period under review, in addition to another N30 billion remitted recently.

The CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, expressed the appreciation of the board, management and staff of the apex bank for the recognition, dedicating it to the hardworking staff of the bank.

Sanusi thanked the committee for making his visit to the House this time a pleasant and memorable one, against some other times when interactions were mired in controversies.