The Central Bank of Nigeria’s plan to restructure the country’s currency has received support from an organization in the north known as The Arewa Economic Advancement Promoters, which also dubbed the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, its “Man of the Year.”
Area-P is a team of academics and strategic communication experts who advocate for North American economic empowerment policies and programs.
Nasir Dambatta, the group’s leader, highlighted the CBN’s concerns during a news conference in Kaduna about the urgent need to take action to deal with liquidity and the flow of criminal proceeds in the country, saying that it felt obligated to emphasize the fundamentals of the naira redesign.
Nasir Dambatta, the group’s convener, shared the CBN’s concerns about the urgent need to take action to deal with liquidity and the flow of criminal proceeds in the country during a press conference in Kaduna. He added that the CBN felt obligated to emphasize the fundamentals of the naira redesign policy generally.
The organization said that it was unacceptable for Nigeria to permit 80% of its urgently required cash to be kept outside of commercial banks since doing so has already had a negative impact on the country’s economy.
According to Dambatta, the CBN should be let to continue along this path until it regains complete control over the money supply.
This is vital, at the very least in light of our alarming inflation, which media sources indicate reached 20.7% in September 2022.
In September 2022, the Nigerian banking system had N3.23 trillion in circulation, according to CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, according to Dambatta. Of this sum, N2.73 trillion was now outside commercial bank vaults or being held by certain residents in unrefined forms.
“Our independent research has revealed that the CBN intends to first sweep up that N3.32 trillion back into the system, to allow the apex bank to regain control of the money supply, and start examining how such a policy can assist contain inflation,” said the report.
“We also want to bring Nigerians’ attention to the fact that the CBN has moved on this naira redesign program within the parameters of its monetary policy authority.
The CBN’s management relied on sections 2(b), 18(a), and 19(a)(b) of the CBN Act 2007 and lawfully requested and received President Muhammadu Buhari’s consent to move through with the release and circulation of new series of N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes, he said.
The group also shared the Senate’s position as captured by the committee Chairman on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Uba Sani (Kaduna Central) that the CBN’s action would address counterfeiting due to the prolonged use of the same notes, adding that nulling the cash outside the banks would augur well for the economy as monetary policy decision making would be easier and that less notes, especially outside the banking system, would curb terrorism financing.
According to Dambatta, “We concur with Uba Sani that the less cash accessible outside of the banking system, the less corrupt activities produced by cash trades.”
The group also described the mandatory “aggressive” monitoring of the redesign process by the Senate committee as a commendable step.
Without excluding those who disagree with the policy due to political motivations or a lack of understanding of the distinction between monetary policy and fiscal policy, we also want to commend President Muhammadu Buhari, his Chief Economic Adviser and Central Bank Governor, Dr. Godwin Emefiele, as well as the leadership of the Senate’s Banking and Finance Committee and other relevant stakeholders for this well-thought-out policy.
We also express our commitment to voluntarily work with other stakeholders to step up public education on the redesign of the naira and other relevant problems.
“As a group, we now name Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as our Man of the Year for the massive agricultural assistance monies and the empowerment of small and medium business owners in our area and throughout Nigeria. Additionally, he twice effectively guided Nigeria out of a recession, the speaker continued.
He said that the fact that the present CBN administration had done better than ever before in the region’s economic history in terms of financial assistance for agricultural, small scale, and medium companies in northern Nigeria was heartening to many astute observers.
