When President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015, he came with a lot of enthusiasm and messianic wand to change the story of Nigeria that was on the verge of collapse economically. As a new Sheriff in town, Buhari made a lot of administrative changes, dissolved boards and many heads of agencies and public service institutions not worth their unions were relieved of their appointments. This was done to take the country back on track towards economic recovery and prosperity.
One of the few places where the head was not changed however was the apex monetary authority; the Central Bank of Nigeria otherwise known as the CBN where a thorough-bred economist, financial expert and reputable banker, Godwin Emefiele, was holding fort as the governor, having been appointed by the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan on June 4, 2014.
For Emefiele to have gained the confidence of President Buhari is, therefore, unambiguously an indication that he was doing something spectacularly different that fitted into the change mantra of the current administration. For instance, during his first term, he supervised an interventionist currency policy at the behest of the presidency, propping up the Nigerian naira by pumping billions of dollars into the foreign exchange market. He also introduced a multiple exchange rate regime in an effort to reduce pressure on the naira as well as avoid devaluation of the currency.
It is also pertinent to highlight unequivocally that the Central Bank of Nigeria under the watchful eyes of Emefiele has also taken the cashless policy in Nigeria to an unprecedented level.
For the avoidance of doubt, the CBN developed the cashless policy in 2012, which required a daily total limit of N500, 000 and N3,000,000 on free cash withdrawals across all accounts owned by individual and corporate customers respectively. The pilot was run in Lagos state from January 2012 while the policy took effect in Rivers, Anambra, Abia, Kano, Ogun and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on July 1, 2013. The policy was implemented nationwide on July 1, 2014 a few days Emefiele assumed responsibility as the CBN Governor.
Before the introduction and implementation of the cashless policy in Nigeria, BussinessDay had noted that “the ease of cash flow occasioned by the cash-based economy made Nigeria vulnerable to fraud, terrorism, and crime. Armed robbers attacked bullion vans and customers who carried large sums of cash. Apart from that, the Central Bank spends billions of naira to remove and replace dirty notes in circulation.
In other to effectively entrench the new cashless regime in the 6 states and the FCT, the Central Bank under Emefiele licensed 26 Mobile Money Operators, 10 Super Agents, 21 Payment Terminal Service Providers, 21 Payment Solution Service Providers, 4 Third Party Processors, 9 Switches and 5 non-Bank Acquirers. It is expected that these licensed entities will smoothen the implementation of the Cashless Policy across the Payments System.
Taking a careful look at the achievements of the cashless policy, BussinessDay reports that “as evidenced by the NIBSS second-quarter fraud report of 2019, attempted fraud volume decreased by 47.28 percent from Q1 figures, while Web, ATM and Mobile remain the usual suspects to be used by fraudsters”.
Following the Cashless Policy re-introduction and increase in usage of electronic system, transactions on instant payments grew from 4 million in 2012 to 729m in 2018, transactions on PoS from 2.5 million in 2012 to 285 million in 2018, and transactions on Mobile Inter-Scheme grew from 2,200 in 2012 to 15 million in 2018”.
One of the areas that the administration of President Buhari will be fondly remembered even by generations yet unborn is the agricultural revolution. The peak of its commitment was the directive by the president to the Central Bank on August 13, 2019 not to make foreign currency available to fund food imports. Emefiele in an interview with TBY in 2018 stated categorically that “four commodities—rice, fish, sugar, and wheat—make up nearly NGN1.3 trillion (USD3.6 billion) annually in import bills. These and other commodities on the 41 items list are a drain on our FX reserves.’’
An interesting thing about Godwin Emefiele is that, since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, he is the first Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to serve a second term in office. The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while screening him for a second term in office in May 2019 through its chairman on Banking, Finance, and other Financial Institutions, Rafiu Ibrahim said the committee was impressed with Mr. Emefiele’s more than 32 years experience with outstanding performance.
The committee recommended confirmation of Emefiele based on performance in his first tenure, saying; “The nominee understands the diverse economy of the country and has displayed profound knowledge of the continuous existence of our economy stability. That the nominee has performed credibly in his first tenure which resulted to the exit of the nation out of economic recession.”
Upon his confirmation and reappointment for a second term in office, Emefiele unveiled his policy thrust for the next five years. Although the policy document outlines a number of objectives, including:
a) achieving a double-digit GDP growth in the next five years,
b) bringing down inflation to single-digit
c) improving infrastructure and driving financial inclusion to 95% by 2024,
d) maintaining existing exchange-rate policy regime, and
e) recapitalisation of the banking industry.
In order to cushion the effect on the COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian economy and to ameliorate the sufferings of the poor masses, the Buhari-led administration through the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced a N50 billion Targeted Credit Facility as a stimulus package to support households and micro, small and medium enterprises that are affected by the pandemic.
This was part of measures and policies aimed at making sure that Nigeria’s economy does not slip back into recession due to the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices.
The CBN has so far announced the disbursement of over N49 billion out of the N50 billion targeted facility for households and small businesses to over 80,000 families and households.
In addition, healthcare facility operators also benefitted from a N100 billion intervention fund and another N1 trillion fund for the manufacturing sector, aimed at ensuring productivity and cushioning the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
Rev. Semaka, Convener of Save Nigeria Movement, is a public affairs commentator
