Mbah made the call when he submitted his visa renewal application at the centre.

The governor, who described the application process as swift and seamless, used the opportunity to appreciate the UK authorities for opening the centre.

He said the centre would strengthen the UK-South East socio-economic ties.

Mbah also urged Nigerians, especially the people of the South East in and outside the region, to apply for UK visas at the Enugu Visa Centre.

Speaking to newsmen after submitting his application, Mbah said: “It was quite an experience, adding that he was quite impressed.

“I noticed that first of all, the time you spend here to file your application is quite short. We do not have the heavy traffic, as you will experience in other places.

“I should also take this opportunity to call on our brothers and sisters in other South East states to know that there is now a visa centre in Enugu,” he said.

He said there was no need for them to go and stay in the long queues in Lagos and Abuja while they could easily come to Enugu and get their application processed expeditiously.

“If you are coming to a centre like this, you are thinking of comfort, confidentiality and the amount of time you spend being attended to and you have all those benefits here.

“So, it is an opportunity even for those who live in Lagos and Abuja, I will also enjoin them to visit this Enugu UK Visa Center to get attended to as quickly as possible,” the governor stated.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the British High Commission in Nigeria on Sept. 11 announced the opening of a new submission centre for UK visa applications in Enugu State, starting from Sept. 13.

The UK Mission said the facility would operate from the Omedel Luxury Hotel, Independence Layout, Enugu, and would offer twice-a-week service on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery, said that the new visa application submission centre followed requests by Mbah and many others during his visit to Enugu in June. (NAN

It also confirmed the nomination of Mrs Emem Usoro, Mr Muhammad Dattijo, Mr Philip Ikeazor and Dr Bala Bello as the bank’s deputy governors.

Their confirmation followed the consideration and approval of a motion moved by Senate Leader, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ekiti Central).

Before their confirmation, the Senate suspended its orders to facilitate the admittance of the nominees into the chamber.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Abdullahi Gumel led the nominees into the chamber.

Thereafter, the CBN governor and the deputies took turns to highlight their career profiles and professional experiences.

Cardoso said for 12 years, between 2010 and 2022 he had the privilege of serving as the chairman of Citi Bank where: “I dedicated myself to enhancing both the financial and non-financial operations of the institution.’’

He told the Senate that the issue of exchange rate of the Naira to other currencies was worrisome.

“For the type of economy that we want, we need to have an exchange rate that is stable and we must apply short and medium term measures to achieve this,’’ he said.

Cardoso added that CBN’s new management team would evolve rules that were open and transparent and comprehensible by all players in the finance business.

“We cannot expect serious foreign investors, portfolio investors who have an impact on the market to do so if we do not have a transparent system that everybody understands and can rely on,’’ he said.

On the issue of inflation and costs of goods, Cardoso said the CBN management would adopt evidence-based monetary policies.

“There is the need to significantly revamp the infrastructure at the central bank with respect to data and to ensure that our data gathering capacity is significantly enhanced.

“This is necessary so that we can make decisions based on stellar data. This is crucial in measuring inflation,’’ he stressed.

He added that reliable studies showed that in the past 10 years to 15 years, at least 50 per cent of inflation resulted from money supply and deficit financing.

“This is a big problem; at least it certainly has been over a period of time and it is something we have to face frontally,’’ he said.

Cardoso also told the Senate that the CBN would ensure that the issue of deficit financing ceased to be a national problem.

Earlier, President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio (APC-Akwa Ibom North-West) said the Senate reconvened from its annual recess to expeditiously consider and confirm the nominees.

He said the expeditious confirmation also resulted from of the emergency resignation of the former CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.

Akpabio urged the Senate Committees on Finance and Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to regularly conduct thorough oversight of the CBN. (NAN)