THUR. 09 FEB, 2023-theGBJournal| The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) Wednesday hailed the Supreme Court’s restraining order on the Central Bank of Nigeria on the timeline for the naira swap, saying the decision would douse current social tension and the risk of social unrest in the country.
‘’We believe this would restore normalcy to economic activities especially in the distributive trade sector, the informal sector and rural economy,’’ the CPPE said in a statement signed by its CEO, Muda Yusuf.
The think-tank said in the statement that 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 reiterated its position that given the huge population of over 200 million, 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.’’
The CPPE argued that onboarding citizens unto the cashless platform should not be decreed or forced on them but 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 GDP 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.”
The CPPE said the 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.”
In compliance with the Supreme Court order, CPPE urged the CBN 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.
‘’This is global best practice. This should happen between within a space of three to six months.’’
Meanwhile, the CPPE wants all the cash that has been mopped to be released to their owners, unless there are reasons to suspect such lodgments and this should be escalated to the antigraft agencies.
‘’Citizens that have lodged their cash for purposes of the cash swap should be allowed unfettered access to their money,’’ it said.
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