The Chief Executive Officer of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise,CPPE,Dr.Muda Yussuf,has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria to obey the Supreme Court’s restraining order on the timeline for the currency swap in the country

He advised the apex bank to immediately allow the old and new currency notes to co-circulate until such a time when the old notes are gradually and completely withdrawn.

The development,he said,is global best practice,adding that this should happen between within a space of three to six months.

He added:”Meanwhile, all the cash that has been mopped up should be released to their owners, unless there are reasons to suspect such lodgments and this should be escalated to the anti-graft agencies.Citizens that have lodged their cash for purposes of the cash swap should be allowed unfettered access to their money”

Commending the apex court on the verdict,Yussuf said the action would restore normalcy to economic activities especially in the distributive trade sector, the informal sector and rural economy.

He said the action would also douse current social tension and the risk of social unrest in the country.

“The small businesses and the ordinary citizens were the biggest victims of the unspeakable disruption and hardship inflicted by the impractical deadline given by the CBN on cash swap. They are the biggest users of cash.

“The CPPE reiterates its position that given the huge population of over 200million,the large informal sector which accounts for over 40% of the GDP, the large rural economy and the over 30 million unbanked Nigerians, the CBN cash swap model and timeline was greatly flawed.

” It is inappropriate to arbitrarily cut down on currency in circulation without due regard to data, empirical studies and global best practices.

“We affirm our position that N2.6 trillion currency in circulation is not too much for the Nigerian economy with a GDP of about N250 trillion. Any attempt to arbitrarily cut it will create a crisis. It is unacceptable that citizens are denied access to their cash deposited for purposes of cash swap.

“This could undermine the confidence of the citizens in the banking system and pose a major risk to the financial inclusion objective of the CBN.

“Onboarding citizens unto the cashless platform should not be decreed or forced on them. It should be voluntary and incentive driven.In Nigeria, Cash to GDP ratio is less than 1.5%; while Cash/Money supply ratio is just about 5%. These are some of the best currency ratios globally and mark of the remarkable progress that has been made in cash-less policy drive

“Cash to Gross Domestic Product in United States is about 9%; in the Eurozone it is about 10%.This underlines that fact that cash is not the problem of the Nigerian economy or monetary policy effectiveness”

“CBN Ways and Means financing of over N22 trillion is a much bigger problem for liquidity management. It is regrettable that a purely monetary policy management issue has been profoundly politicized as witnessed in the past few weeks. This had obscured fundamental economic conversations”

The naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) could compromise the conduct of the 2023 general elections,the
National Assembly has said

At a one day public hearing held by the National Assembly joint committee on Independent National Electoral Commission and electoral matter, the lawmakers expressed concerns on perceived obstacles against the polls due to the currency policy.

Speaking,Senator Michael Opeyemi (APC Ekiti Central), a member of the committee, in his remarks, said going by the problem of acute Naira scarcity being faced by Nigerians , the Central Bank of Nigeria is the most outstanding threat to the elections .

According to him, the plan of selectivity of cash withdrawal INEC worked out with the CBN on Tuesday , was not assuring as far as smooth conduct of the elections was concerned.

He added:”The CBN told us at the beginning of the policy that the targets were the so-called moneybags who stashed away billions in their closets. We thought those at the people they want to get at.

“We are now seeing that it is the ordinary man on the streets suffering . They are sleeping in the banking hall because they cannot have access to the little money they have. We must understand the political economy of an electoral process.

“People are thinking of the money politicians would spend on vote buying, they don’t know that political parties would also mobilise people to all the polling units as agents, just like the INEC would mobilise personnel also.

“Today, the CBN is assuring Nigerians that it would provide money for INEC if they need more money.Are we saying that INEC must rely on the intervention of the CBN for it to perform?

“If the police run into logistics problems, they would also run to CBN for selective intervention.We are fighting Boko Haram , so if the military authorities could not access funds from their banks, they will also need to approach the CBN for selective intervention.

“These are issues and as a stakeholder, the CBN is the most outstanding threat to these elections holding as scheduled.The INEC should do it’s best. When the political class appear to have hold the nation to ransom as it appear now, it is the judiciary that will have to stand up and save the nation from the jugular of the political class.

“There is definitely, a cabal that does not want this election to hold but let us remind them those who call themselves the cabal, under president Olusegun Obasanjo they became irrelevant after that. Ditto for those who constituted themselves as cabal under late president Umaru Yar’adua and President Goodluck Jonathan.The current situation shall also past.The nation is at a crossroads and all stakeholders must stand up in defence of our democracy

Representative of INEC Chairman, May Agbamuche, said persistent violence could affect the credibility of the elections especially if the attacks were targeted at INEC facilities.

According to her, “With the General Election at hand, it is important to remind you all of the Commission’s commitment to free, fair and credible elections. Our preparation is bowever fraught with challenges, There is no doubt that violence and threat of violence are major challenges to credible election im 2023,

“Violence makes deployment for elections difficult particularly where some of the attacks are targeted at INEC facilities the electoral process and participants. However the Commission has been working with security agencies and other stakeholders to establish mechanisms to understand, track and mitigate security challenges.

“We are working collaboratively in the context of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES). In all, we feel assured by the actions we have taken and our collaboration with the security agencies.

The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Mr. Samson Itodo, has urged the INEC to reconsider it’s stand on the three million students who could be disenfranchised in the forthcoming polls.

Itodo in his submissions at the public hearing, disagreed with the position of INEC that it could not help the situation.

He said: “The House of Representatives in its wisdom had passed a resolution calling on those tertiary institutions and the INEC to allow the students return home where they had registered and participate in the electoral process. ”

The Chairman, Senate Committee on the INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya, appealed to the INEC management and the authorities of the affected institutions to respect the rights of the students by cancelling any examination slated for the election periods.