The Chairman of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum, and Governor of Sokoto State, Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has said that the National Economic Summit Group, NESG, has saved the country from economic ruins.

He spoke at the NGF secretariat in Abuja where a delegation of the NESG led by its Director-General,Mr Laoye Jaiyeola paid him a courtesy call early in the week,a statement from Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, Head, Media and Public Affairs of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat,said.

Addressing the delegation on the 2022 edition of the summit, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal encouraged them to continue to hold such conversations to excite awareness, productivity and accountability among Nigerians.

According to him,as the country approaches a transition such conversations have become necessary to set an agenda that would influence decisions on the future of the country.

He reiterated the import of the partnership between the NGF and the NESG, saying they both play very strong roles that add value in helping heal the economy.

He pledged his total support to the Group and promised to deploy his position as Chairman of the NGF to galvanise the rest of the governors into supporting the summit.

The NESG is inviting Governor Tambuwal to provide his perspective on the resource constraints in the delivery of primary healthcare across states and challenges faced with the acquisition and management of funds for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, BHCPF, at the subnational level.

The occasion comes up on the 14th and 15th of November 2022 in Transcorp Hilton Abuja.

Four other Governors have been invited to sit as panellists at various stages of the Summit. They include Kaduna’s Nasiru El Rufai, Gombe’s Inuwa Yahya, Edo’s Godwin Obaseki and Governor Chukuma Soludo of Anambra State.

Speaking through Dr Tayo Aduloju, its Chief Operating Officer,NESG said domestic resource mobilisation remains one of the key drivers of fiscal viability and stability and is therefore inviting Soludo as a Professor of Economics and with his experience as a former Central Bank Governor, to share his perspectives on strategies for mobilising capital from within and outside Nigeria.

The Edo State governor will share his perspectives on the cruciality of human capital development and its multiplier effect on the economy, the Gombe governor will speak about sharing innovative approaches to improving business environments, particularly for MSMEs.

He will also speak on how this achievement can be leveraged to drive capital formation/importation from within and outside, while el-Rufai will speak on how the federal government can continue to play the important role of protecting the basic rights of all citizens in the country especially those beyond the capacity of States, and how state governments can best take on the problems that are truly local while sitting on the table of national discourse,the statement said.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC has drawn battlelines with currency hoarders whose intent is to scuttle the country’s redesign of new currency.

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele,had Wednesday announced that the apex bank had obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, to resign and issue new N200, N500 and N1000 notes that shall come into circulation by December 15, 2022.

Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, warned that his agency will monitor the process to ensure that unscrupulous players and currency speculators and their cohorts among the BDCs do not undermine the exercise.

In a release issued by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s Head, Media & Publicity,the agency’s boss implored banks to be alive to their reporting obligations and not assist unscrupulous customers in laundering suspected proceeds of crimes through their system.

He recalled that the commission had recently taken operational action against currency hoarders in major commercial cities of Nigeria.

“It is therefore pertinent to issue this stern warning to Bureau de Change operators to be wary of currency hoarders who would attempt to seize this opportunity to offload the currencies they had illegally stashed away.”,he said.

The agency’s boss,who noted that currency hoarders readily made their hoard available to criminal enterprise, further stated that the commission will spare no effort to bring to book any financial services operator who runs afoul of extant laws and regulations.

He explained that the objectives which the apex bank seeks to achieve with the redesign and reissue of the higher denomination Naira notes, were in tandem with the objectives of the Money Laundering Prevention Prohibition Act 2022, which criminalizes the conduct of cash transactions above a certain threshold.

According to Section 2 (1) of the Money Laundering Act 2022 “No person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding; (a) N5,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual ; or (b) N10,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of a body corporate.”

He expressed optimistism that the new currency measure would further boost Nigerians’ embrace of banking culture and encourage the acceptance of cashless transactions.

He described the move by the apex bank as “a well-considered and timely response” to the challenges of currency management which has negatively impacted the country’s monetary policy and security imperatives.

“The EFCC, the CBN and some other regulators in the financial sector have worked closely in the recent past to determine how best to stabilize the country’s monetary policy environment. It is heart-warming that the CBN has demonstrated courage in taking this bold decision which I believe will bring sanity to the currency management situation in Nigeria”, he said.

He implored operators in the Nigerian financial services sector, especially deposit money banks and Bureau De Change (BDC) Operators to work within the guidelines provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure seamless withdrawal of the old currency.