Expert faults CBN logic of minting only 300bn worth of notes for mopped 3tn
Whereas the apex court of the land, the Supreme Court, Wednesday relieved Nigerians with its ruling that set aside the February 10 deadline for use of old naira notes, a Finance expert, Dr. Eugene Okwosa has argued that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not do its home work very well before the currency swap policy.
In an exclusive interview with Business Hilights, he reasoned that “It is wrong to think that changing 3 trillion in a matter of weeks with the minting of only 300 billion worth of notes will not be chaotic.”
“First of all, it is not enough and it cannot saturate the economy. So who is fouling who here?
Continuing, he averred that “There is nowhere or economy in the world where less than 800bn to one trillion worth of currency is minted to swap 3 trillion without crisis unless where cashless system has matured over time.”
According to him, “Nigeria is currently nowhere in cashless policy because of poor and weak digital infrastructures.
“Besides, only 34 percent of Nigerians have bank accounts, only nine percent of Nigerians use digital platforms for their transactions, you think that you’ll move 34% and 9% to a 100% overnight.”
Besides, Dr Okwosa added that swapping currency should not be done in a hurry because of the level of unbanked Nigerians and the fact that several rural areas are yet to be connected with internet broadband penetration. He also argued that the Nigerian financial system lacks the digital infrastructure to carry huge traffic at a time.
