The Central Bank Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, has stated that the apex bank’s planned relocation of departments and personnel to other branches is a response to the current “overpopulation” at the headquarters.

Cardoso stated this in an interview with Arise Television on Monday.

According to him, 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.

Recall that the apex bank’s decision to redeploy over 1,500 personnel from its headquarters to other branches in the country has been met with public outcry, especially from Northern elders.

Cardodo said to Arise TV on Monday, February 5; “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.”

Cardoso further stated, “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.”