President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to take notice of recommendations offered by the House of Representatives’ ad-hoc Committee on Naira Re-design, Cashless Policy and Currency Swap, led by Ado Doguwa to rectify identified problems with the new national monetary policy.

He gave the directive when he received briefing from members of the House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, insisting however, that the naira swap process and cashless policy of the CBN have short and long term benefits for the country in dealing with insecurity and corruption. According to a statement issued by Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the President said his broadcast speech was comprehensive enough and adequate to response to the general outcry about the problems associated with the currency exchange.

He described the aim of the policy as “very good, security-wise” as seen from the lessening of kidnappings and associated corrupt practices, even as he once again accused banks of being a problem.

President Buhari directive came just as the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, assured that N200 old notes taken out of circulation will be moved back with immediate effect. He further assured that by the end of February, the CBN would have brought between N700 billion to N800 billion, well in excess of what is needed to run the economy, into circulation, stating emphatically that it is not possible to re-inject more than N3 trillion if the economy is to be healthy. He explained that the cashless policy was a global policy, saying “Nigeria must go cashless. It is a global policy, checking insecurity and fighting corruption”.

He added that senior officers at the CBN had all been sent out, complimented by “Super agents,” to take new currencies to unbanked rural populations, expressing optimism that the problems he described as “temporary, passing” will go away in no distant future.

Speaking to State House Correspondents after the meeting, Emefiele revealed he had met 15 top banks earlier in the day in an effort to resolve prevailing problems and will do so again later in the evening, appealing to Nigerians to be patient with the process as the current pains will soon ease off.

“Well, the truth is this, we are all servants, we’re serving Nigerians. As far as I’m concerned, the Attorney-General of the Federation has spoken on this matter and the President has sealed the whole of the issue this morning in his broadcast.

“I think I can only just appeal to Nigerians. Let’s allow this policy to work. This policy is one policy that goes to solve the problem of reducing corruption and illicit financial flows. This policy goes to resolve some of the problems in the economy. This policy also goes to reducing the level of insecurity in the country. So these three issues, which are the tripod of this administration’s policy, are all embedded in this policy, we should just allow it to work. “We keep saying this, there are some temporary pains, but I can assure Nigerians that the long run benefit to Nigeria is overwhelming and we should just give it a chance to work.

“President has given his directives, I have met with about 15 banks this morning and we’ve given them directives about how they should make all the old N200 available, effective today and I can assure Nigeria that this will help to reduce the pains.

“We meet with bankers at least once daily, to get feedback and the rest of them and I think we should just allow this policy work. The temporary pains are regrettable, but I can assure Nigerians that it will be well”, he said.

Emiefele assured that the apex bank will not be a problem to elections, that they will hold successfully.

Meanwhile, leader of the Parliamentary delegation, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, the House Majority Leader and Chairman of the Ad-Hoc Committee, said the meeting with the President was necessitated by the need to bring him up to date on the “problems of implementation and unintended consequences” of the new cash policy.

In acknowledging the far-reaching quality of the President’s broadcast to the nation earlier today, the House Leader said the Legislature and the Government were on the same page in so far as the goals of the policy were concerned. He added, however, that more needed to be done to remove the “hardship and inconveniences” that have attended its implementation.

He told State House Correspondents after the meeting, that going into election without “hard cash” will put members of the National Assembly at a disadvantage, irrespective of the political party they belong.

He said each member of the House of Representatives is entitled to N70 million cash to pay polling agents and other election running costs, saying if they have no hard cash, they will be disadvantaged in the exercise.

Doguwa explained that his Committee was mandated by the House and by extension, the National Assembly, to interface with the President and the CBN on the implementation of the policy.

He said although most of what they wanted to discuss with the President had been taken care of by his broadcast earlier in the day, especially the extension of the validity of the old N200 notes, there is the need to do more to ensure that his directive to the apex bank to make the money available, is carried out immediately.

“Now that the President has issued the directive, how do we ensure that the president’s directive is being carried out on the ground? This is what we came to iron out today. No matter how professional a policy is, it is counterproductive if it induces suffering on Nigerians”, he said.

On how the lack of cash will affect the elections, the lawmaker said “on vote buying like you said, I want to tell you without any equivocation that Dodogwa you know, who has won the election seven times and that I belong to the ruling APC proudly, no one of us in the APC and I believe people in other parties is out to buy votes.

“But you must also take into cognizance that there is a clear cut provision in the Electoral Act which provides for the amount of money needed for every political office holder to take during campaign to use.

“A member of the House of Representatives is expected by law to have more than N70 million naira to conduct his elections, logistics and other things. N70 million naira cash by law.

“A presidential candidate is expected to have at least N1 billion by law. The law has provided for us the amount of money we need to oversee our election process. You need to pay your agents in the villages where you don’t have ATM machines, in the villages where you don’t have POS, in the villages where absolutely you don’t have this new naira.

“So this is money that I require, that the law has permitted me to have N70 million as logistics. I need to have this N70 million in hardcopy. As I speak to you, I don’t have it, which means if this policy continues this way, if the central bank fails to make available this money we need to fund our elections, definitely every candidate, no matter what party he belongs to, will be put at disadvantage.

“Don’t forget the point I’ve made as a partisan member, that the policy in itself is a policy that is apparently against the ruling APC because Nigerians that are not happy will look at it as a policy of government of APC. This has placed us at a disadvantage already”, he said.

SOURCE: THESUN