By Elizabeth Chukwuma
For over the last three and half years, in thePresident Muhammadu Buhari second term in office, he had enjoyed a robust working relationship with the National Assembly that had made Nigerians to describe under the Lawmakers as rubber stamp to the Katsina state born Nigerian President policies and Executive proposals.
Ahmad Lawan, the Senate President, whom Nigerians had looked expected to force the Katsina state born Nigerian President to sit up, may have made matters worse as he was always shobnobbing with the Nigerian President that the Senate under his Leadership could not say no to any of the requests of the President including requests to borrow money from multilateral Financial Associations to execute pojects.
The National Assembly Lawmakers may have taken advantage of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, under the close watch of the Delta state born Banker, Godwin Emefiele, new policy on maximum cash withdrawals limit policy from over the counter, OTC, in any of the Commercial banks and Financial Institutions, operating in the country, or Automated Teller machines, ATM and Point of Sale, POS, by Indiividuals or Corporate Organisations per week or on a daily basis, described as killing, to tell Buhari, that they can no longer be taken for granted.
The apex bank maximum cash withdrawal policy which had restricted maximum cash withdrawal over the counter , OTC, by individuals and Corporate Organisations to N100,000 and N500,000.00 per week respectively a well as making ‘’ third –party cheques above N50,000.00 not to be eligible for OTC, payment, withouth the National Assembly approval approval.
It was aid to have also set a limit for cash withdrawals per week through the Automated Teller Machine, ATM, at N100,000.00 subject to a maximum of N20,000.00 cash and daily maximum withdrawals of N20,000.00 per day at the Point of Sale, POS.
The National Lawmakers who may have read the handwriting on the wall that the policy was targeted at certain individuals and the politicians who needed huge amount to prosecute their electioneering Campaigns for the 2023, general elections, may have been forced to react to the CBN, new policy ,to win the heart of the leading Opposition party members. who are poised for action because of the hardship in the country.
Philip Auda, Senate Minority Leader, may have given an insight to what the Lawmakers will do in the coming months when he called for a point order during plenary session on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 for the attention of Colleagues to tell the ne CBN,’’ to reverse the Cash withdrawal policy limit. The Lawmaker was said to have demanded for caution, insisting that ‘’it will affect many Nigerians, especially business owners’’.
I In apparent response to the Senators worry and the public fear that the CBN, cash withdrawal limit policy, will affect many Nigerian businessmen and women, Emefile had said that ‘’it was not intended to hurt anyone but designed to strengthen the economy’’ , stressing ‘’there will be no rigidity on the implementation policy and no reversal’’.
The PDP Minority Leader, may have won the heart of the Senate Leadership, particular, Senator Lawan, who not be retruning to the upper Chamber ecause Babaga Machina, using the instrumentality of the Court has replaced him as the Senatorial Candidate for Yobe north of the ruling aAPC, for the 2023, general elections. .
Femi Gbajabiamila, led House of Representatives may have taken a cue from the Senate to fight the CBN, maximum cash withdrawal limit policy by individuals and corporate organisations per week and on a daily basis. The House was said to have summoned Emefiele, the CBN, governor to appear before it over the bank’s new policy on cash withdrawals on Thursday, December 8, 2022. The House was said to have made its position clear as it had ordered ‘’the suspension of the new policy following a resolution during plenary on the said Thursday, December 8, 2022.
Emefiele , who has the backing of the Nigerian President may have made the National Assembly Lawmakers understand that he does not take orders from them as he was said to have repeatedly told them that ‘’there was no going back on the policy’’, meaning that it has come to stay.
Given that Hajia Zainab Ahmeed, the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning could not stop the redesigning of N200, N500 and N10000 notes, despite public support , may have informed why critics had said that the National Assembly moves to force the CBN, suspend the maximum cash withdrawal limit policy would be a wasted efforts.
Aware that the apex bank may not reverse the cash withdrawal limit policy, which the Commercial banks and other Financial institutions operating in the country may not be able to stop, may have given ammunition to Kola Ayeye, an Economist, to lend his voice to what the critics of the CBN, policy, that he had said that ‘’it is not the nation’s major problem at the moment that should be tackled’’.
He had corroborated the bank’s views that the policy was initiated ‘’to reduce the country’ heavy reliance on cash and to further accelerate the digitisation of the economy as obtained in other parts of the world, the Economist had had said that even if ‘’the bank achieve its objective of introducing the policy, it may be dealing with only six percent of the money supply in the country’’.
Appealing to Emefiele, the CBN, governor, Ayeye, had urged the apex Bank that that rather than ‘’waste much energy in trying to control the money in circulation in the country, ‘’the bank should focus its attention to pay the country’s mind boggling external debts which the Buhari Administration, has accumulated , over the last seven years.
The World Bank had revealed that as at the end of 2021, the external debt of debtor nations, particular, those in the poorest and developing economies of the world, including Nigeria, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, which had hit $9 trillion.
The world bank had put the country’s external debt stock at $103 billion as at the end of November 2022, compared to the 2010 figure, of $18.39 billion.The bank had had said that the currency depreciation of the indebted developing economies, including Nigeria, may have made matters worse for the nation because ‘’the accumulated debts are denominated in the North American country of the United States dollars’’.
The country was said to have spent $589.59 million servicing the debts to the World Bank and the the Asian country of China, Exim Bank of China . It was said to have also paid a total of $390.92 million, which included $384.28 million to the Inte rnational Development Association, IDA and $6.6 million to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD.
This is in addition to a atotal of $207.67 million that was said to have been paid to the Exim bank for different projects in which the loans were taken by past and present and past Administrations.
