The twin crisis of fuel scarcity and now the re-designed new notes, besetting the country, are not adding up, all things being equal. The country appears to be in a confused state as hardships continue to mount on daily basis. The irony is that those who have money cannot access their deposits with banks. The new naira redesign which was announced by the apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on October 26, 2022 suddenly has become a leveller. The haves and the have not, altogether are crying at the moment. Families are almost on the street, looking for the new notes that are not available, even in the banks’ vaults! The scarcity of the new naira shortly after it was introduced in the society prompted the CBN to ask for a shift in date, from 31st January to 10th February, 2023, during which time the old naira notes would be completely phased out, and the new ones, fully introduced to ease the tension in the land. Unfortunately, between the time the extension was announced till this present time, the situation has become worse, such that customers of the banks queue almost endlessly at the ATM, waiting to make withdrawals without success. This is the situation everywhere in the country, including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
The Social Media is awash with pictures of some bank officials, including ladies who scaled the fence for fear of being attacked by angry bank customers who, understandably, have lost patience. On the other hand, stories of bank officials who allegedly are lining their pockets by selling to Point of Sales (POS), operators have also been heard. The unlucky ones among them, according to the reports, have been arrested even as others continue to operate clandestinely. The President, Muhammadu Buhari, understanding the poor implementation of the exercise asked for ten days which had since expired. Just last week, we raised the alarm on this column that some people were out to derail the cashless policy, which we strongly believe would address the fluctuating naira and other economic issues bedeviling the society. Again, we also want to restate our position that the naira swap is not the problem, but elements in the society who are bent on subverting the good intentions of government. Already, the old naira notes would have ceased to be legal tender by February 10, but for the recent judgement of the Supreme Court that has placed what it called a temporary halt on the phasing out of the old naira notes, maintaining that the old and newly redesigned naira notes should for now be accepted as legal tender.
The cashless policy from what experts have espoused lately is not bad economic policy, but instead, the way to go since Nigeria is part of the global village as most countries of the world have gone cashless. What we understand that is wrong is the implementation of the policy by those behind it, especially some elements in the commercial banks. How on earth do we expect a society to function when a bank that is supposed to dispense cash to its customers turns around to hoard such money when almost everyone in the society is in need? What about those selling same scarce cash to POS operators or to the highest bidder without serious statements from the Bankers’ Committee and other financial bodies? These are the problems. We want to believe that the cashless policy is not targeted at anyone, but instead to save our ailing economy and the naira that is not doing well in the autonomous foreign exchange market. The cashless policy should be given a chance to thrive. Nobody should hide under any guise to call for its cancellation. What is important is to ensure that the cashless policy succeeds and to see if the problem of corruption, which has become an albatross to our society would be reduced at least, to the barest minimum. The human face therefore is that everyone, especially those in authority need to support the government and ensure that the cashless regime is allowed to function without further inhibitions hitherto experienced in the last couple of weeks, that tried to put the society on the edge.
