By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Some politicians have been accused of working tirelessly to frustrate the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for their selfish interests.
At a media briefing on Monday in Abuja, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and civil society organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of the Coalition of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs) said the reason behind the moves to stop the policy is vote-buying.
During elections, politicians induce voters with cash. This is a practice across most of the political parties in Nigeria. Some offer voters less than N5,000 for votes.
A few days ago, the central bank said from January 9, 2023, Nigerians would only be allowed to withdraw N100,000 per week as cash across the different channels, ATMs, POS terminals and over-the-counter (OTC).
This was kicked against by some lawmakers at the National Assembly, who asked the governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to appear before them this week for explanations.
At the press conference today, CNCSOs praised the apex bank for the new policy and expressed optimism that the bank would not bow to pressure.
According to the leaders of the two groups, Mr Willy Ezugwu for CNPP and Mr Ali Abacha for CSOs, the cashless policy will tackle corruption in Nigeria apart from vote-buying.
“For the purpose of insight, by law, Section 2 (b) of the CBN Act clearly mandates the Central Bank of Nigeria to solely issue legal tender currency in Nigeria.
“The CBN regulates the volume of money supply in the economy in order to ensure monetary and price stability in line with Section 2 (a) of the Act.
“Specifically, the Currency Operations Department of the CBN is responsible for currency management through the planning, procurement, distribution, processing, reissue and disposal of banknotes and coins.
“It was in the exercise of its unambiguous legal duties in Section 2 of its establishment Act that the CBN in 2012 introduced what is today known as a cashless policy which led to the application of aspects of the policy beginning from January 1, 2012, in Lagos State, which was tagged Cashless Lagos.
“As specified by the CBN as far back as 2012, the cashless policy is aimed at placing Nigeria among the best 20 economies in the world before the year 2020. This is a target that was never met. We’re in 20222. Is Nigeria now among the 20 best global economies? But the CBN informed the world that Nigeria would start changing to a cashless economy by January 2012 and complete the process in 2020 to be among the best economies.
“So, why are people complaining about the timing of the implementation of the new cash withdrawal limits when the CBN is running behind its own scheduled implementation target?
“Only a mischievous person will be complaining about the timing of the review of the cash withdrawal limits because we should be applauding Mr Godwin Emefiele as the CBN Governor for daring to move Nigeria’s economy into the top 20 best in the world after over seven years of stagnancy,” the groups said.
Speaking further, they stated that, “Part of the 2012 cashless policy was conceived to reduce the amount of Naira notes and coins (that is cash) used for business, though not to eliminate their usage in line with Nigeria’s vision 20:2020. If so, why should politicians or anybody be complaining about the current reduction in cash withdrawals even when the CBN is two years behind its own target?
“Also, the cashless policy, among other gains, is to help the central bank and commercial banks better manage our economy to ensure that Nigeria’s monetary policy works.
“Now, is Nigeria’s monetary policy working? The answer is NO! Why, then, are we seeing governors, like that of Adamawa State, talking against the CBN Governor and his management team, who have vowed to speed up the implementation process for a full launch of Nigeria’s cashless policy, two years behind schedule of placing Nigeria among the best 20 economies in the world? It is because many of our current leaders don’t mean well for the country.”
Adedapo Adesanya