Naira redesign policy good, timing, implementation too short-Okonji

Come February 25th Nigerians will vote at various levels and constituencies to choose the leaders who will steer the country’s affairs for the next four years.

The presidential election is the pinnacle of these elections, with far-reaching implications for the country. On the surface, unlike previous presidential elections where we only had two viable options, Nigerians have a plethora of options in this one, comparable only to the 1979 presidential election when we had to choose between five candidates.

The choice that Nigerians will face in less than three weeks time is not primarily about candidates, but also about the outcome of the sociopolitical and economic realities that we would like to see post-2023 elections.

Speaking on ThisMorning with Yori Folarin, Management Consultant, Writer, Publisher and an APC Chieftain, Ambassador Mike Nduka Okonji said more focus should be on the personalities of the Presidential front runners and not just looking at the political parties to which they belong.

Speaking on the recent CBN naira redesign policy, Mr Okonji noted that there are some policies that you want to implement but the side effects must be taken into consideration.

“People are suffering, you have your money but can’t access it. A lot of them would even have passed on because of this kind of a policy. What then are the advantages to Nigerians.

“The Nigeria economy is local in the sense that most people don’t even go to banks to keep their money.

“If you’re bringing in such policy, you call the stakeholders and have a discussion over it, nobody is saying that the policy is bad but the timing and the short time you’ve given for people to go and change their money into the new one is too short and the money is not available.

“I’m forced to believe what El-Rufai said about the columnist in the system because you can’t bring in such policy where you know there’s election within few months and you’re driving such policy, a government that is in power creating more hardship for the people.

“Politicians also need money to move around. There is nothing wrong with the policy, we are only saying more time should be given,” he said.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of running the risk of driving the country into a recession.

Coming out of a meeting held on Saturday, February 11, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Chairman of the NGF, issued a press statement on Monday stating clearly the position of members of the body.

The organisation expressed its sympathies and solidarity with Nigerians who are experiencing significant difficulties as a result of the current CBN Naira redesign and cash withdrawal restrictions policy, a situation that pushed the organisation to quickly intervene and call for an unequivocal halt of the policy.

The excuse by the CBN to migrate the Nigerian economy into a cashless economy through the naira redesign policy was faulted by the body. “It has become necessary to make a distinction between the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy, backed by Section 20(3) of the CBN Act, 2007, and the aspirational policy of going cashless, both of which are mutually exclusive at this time,” it stated.

The body accused the apex bank of not taking into consideration the impact this policy was going to have on the informal sector. With the informal sector employing more than 5.5 million people in Lagos alone, according to the International Monetary Fund, the body emphasised that the CBN should have carried out adequate understudy to assess the impact the policy would have had on the economy.

The body decried the impact the scarcity of the naira has had on the economy, with “a naira black market, severe food inflation, variable commodity prices based on the method of exchange, and long queues as well as crowds around Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and banking halls across the country with individuals hoping to get a fraction of their money in new notes to meet their daily livelihood.”

A situation that it feared could force a CBN-induced recession.

“The country runs the risk of a CBN-induced recession,” the forum said.

The NGF said that it was rather disturbing that there has yet to be a change in the financial system despite the “submission of the Attorney General of the Federation that the Federal Government will comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court, which calls for the halting of the CBN’s plan to end the use of the old currency notes.”