As the battle rages over the proposed new policy of currency redesign, with support from President Muhammadu
Buhari, experts have expressed divergent opinions.

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele and Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, are on different pages,as the plan was announced on Wednesday.

The finance minister expressed fears over the dire economic consequences of currency redesign.

International monetary agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) too are not taking the matter low as they have devised means of getting more information on the plan.

Buhari yesterday said the decision of the CBN to launch new designs and replace high value naira notes had his support, adding that he is convinced that the nation will gain a lot from the new policy.

Speaking in a Hausa radio interview with the famous journalist Halilu Ahmed Getso, and Kamaluddeen Sani Shawai on Tambari TV on Nilesat, the president said the reasons given to him by the CBN convinced him that the economy stood to benefit from reduction in inflation, currency counterfeiting and the excess cash in circulation.

He said he did not consider the period of three months for the change to the new
notes as being short.

”People with illicit money buried under the soil will have a challenge with this but workers, businesses with legitimate incomes will face no difficulties at all,” Buhari said.

In the interview, the President also addressed issues of food security and national security, among others.
*Experts divided as Moghlalu alleges politicians buying dollars with stockpiled naira

A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, queried the policy on the basis of quality of governance.

“Did he or she not inform the minister,” he asked, adding, “I am not sure the minister got the right briefing.
He expressed the doubt whether the policy would work, noting that Nigeria has always been redesigning the naira, “but it is not a big deal”.
In his view, politicians are only hoarding money for elections, buying dollars in large quantities, as well as putting pressure on naira.

Another expert, Samson Adekola, thinks that the policy may be a well-conceived one , but the timing, going by realities on ground “is very wrong as the naira may fall to as low as N1,000 to a US dollar before January 31, 2023 fixed for full implementation of the policy.”

But speaking on the new move a policy ana- lyst, Muyiwa Ogunlaja, noted the powers of sub sections A and B empowering the CBN to always tackle the problem of currency by ensuring that best practice prevailed.

He suggested that every nation’s currency should be modified, redesigned, or some-
thing done to render currencies stored, use- less or to bring them out within the next five to eight years.

According to him, Nigeria last conducted this exercise 20 years ago. Ogunlaja stated that the exercise had been
long overdue because more than 80 percent of the nation’s cash is being stored outside of bank vaults.

“Some of these monies are stored in the mortuaries, burial grounds, deep freezers, farms, and we have the ones that have been swallowed by snakes.

“A lot of them who have hidden money now have to find a way of bringing the money into the system and EFCC is waiting because you need to explain how you got the money that you want to bring in.

“A lot of wealthy men are very stingy, selfish, and very egoistic, they are not going to part away with any kobo, they will want to bring in everything and in the process, they fall into the net,” he said.

He went further by saying the real purpose why the CBN is carrying out this exercise is to give the naira its credibility.

“The naira is not better than toilet roll. The CBN has also been seen as very weak, inflation has also gone up,” he said.

Buhari summons emergency security meeting

*Senate may again CBN gov

Meanwhile, the Joint Senate Committees on Finance, Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Institutions has disclosed that it may summon the CBN governor to throw more light on the proposed naira redesign, and why the finance ministry was not involved in the arrangement.

An investigation by our correspondent revealed that the summon became necessary, following the declaration by the Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Zainab Ahmed, that her ministry was not part of the proposed plan to redesign the N200, N500, and the N1,000 naira notes.

“So, we have asked the secretariat of our committee, to liaise with those of the Banking, and invite Emefiele for questioning this week,” the senator added.

Attempts to speak with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, and his colleague in the Banking panel, Senator Sani, over the matter, yesterday failed as none of them could be reached on phone.

They had also yet to reply to the messages sent to them separately as of the time of filing this report.

The Senate Finance panel had summoned the acting Accountant-General of the Federation, Okolieboh Sylva, to explain alleged “unremitted” charges deducted from the ‘Remitta’ payment platform into the Federation Account.

Sylvia appeared before the panel to defend the budget of his office on Friday.
He was unable to provide satisfactory answers to questions raised by the lawmakers about the disbursements and utilisation of the billions of naira allegedly raised through the payment platform in the last 10 years.

The Chairman of the Committee insisted that the mystery surrounding the “unremitted” money must be unravelled. Sylva explained that even though his office was in charge of the Remitta payment platform, the office did not receive any amountfrom the service charge.

He said it was shared between the Central Bank of Nigeria, commercial banks, and the service provider, Remitta.

The explanation was rejected by the senators who described it as “strange” for the Office of the Accountant General to receive nothing from the billions of money deducted even though the platform belonged to it.

The Senate panel subsequently ordered a probe into the matter and summoned the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Accountant General as well as the service provider, REMITTA to appear before it unfailingly on November 16, to give explanations.

The Senate Committee chairman said, “We are hereby ordering the acting Accountant General of the Federation to provide details of all the bank accounts of the office to date in the next week.

“We will not hesitate to step down the office’s budget defence if it fails to come up
with the accounts.

“We decided to pay special attention to the books of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation as a result of recent alleged corruption that characterised the tenure of the immediate past Accountant
General, Ahmed Idris, who is currently facing charges of embezzlement with the Economic and Financial Commission.

“As for the North which is poorly represented in the banking system, it’s a sure economic suicide.

How many Nigerians have access to banks? How many do have the privilege to enjoy the most simple of
banking loans?

“You need to know someone to get a loan is no news. In such a Nigeria, with this tight control of cash flow, the nation is treading towards communism and dictatorship. What we need is a free market-driven economy with minimal cash flow control.

“As for the question of starving kidnappers of Naira, it goes without saying that they will resort to Dollars and other hard currencies which will further put more pressure on it making the rotten situation worse,” he said.

In addition, he posited, “Kidnapping can only be stopped by robust policing, social justice for all, and equitable wealth distribution. Any cosmetic measures will not stop it.”

Despite all the hullabaloo over the issue, however, the response of international agencies has been met with approval.

For instance, International Monetary Fund (IMF) resident representative, Ari Aisen, in an emailed response to questions, said, “We stand ready to provide any assistance as needed.”
*Finance minister’s fears

Ahmed appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance on Friday to defend her ministry’s 2023 budget when she was asked to throw more light on the CBN policy.

The minister’s response shocked the sentors when she disowned the policy, claiming that her ministry was not part of it, even as she warned that it could have consequences.

The minister’s response unsettled the Senate panel members as they resolved to sum- mon Emefiele to find out why he shut the finance ministry out on the policy.