Confirming the development, Dr. Kayode Adegoke, head, Corporate Communications Unit at NIMC, said that upon receiving the information on the activities of the unscrupulous individuals, NIMC, in conjunction with the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), swiftly arrested the culprits behind the illegal collection of the NIN.

“They are currently being interrogated and would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

“The Commission, therefore, advises Anambra State residents and Nigerians to avoid submitting their NINs to unauthorized individuals, organizations, or platforms, as the Federal Government and NIMC have not authorized this. Anyone caught will be sanctioned appropriately.

“At no time should NIN holders give out their NINs for monetary compensation. This is against the laws of the Federation. Anyone caught will be dealt with appropriately”.

The Commission had earlier issued a statement warning Nigerians against sharing their NIN or Data with anyone or on any fictitious sites. The NIN can only be used by the holders to access government or private sector services, and it must be verified.

Adegoke added that the Commission has taken necessary measures to curb the activities of these unscrupulous individuals.

“The general public is hereby advised to reach out to the Commission whenever they notice the indiscriminate collection of NIN via: nimccustomercare@nimc.gov.ng; 07002255646; 01923000010

“NIMC wishes to thank all security agencies for their support towards the credibility and success of the NIN enrolment project”, Adegoke added.

According to PMDSS Arrest CBN Governor News, Emefiele was taken into custody by the DSS on Friday evening.

The arrest comes shortly after President Bola Tinubu announced the suspension of Emefiele, citing ongoing investigations and planned reforms in the financial sector.

Before his suspension, the DSS had sought an order to arrest Emefiele in a December 2022 exparte application, accusing him of financing terrorism, engaging in fraudulent activities, and committing economic crimes of national security concern.

However, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice J.T Tsoho, declined to grant the DSS’s application, noting that such a request should have been accompanied by presidential approval due to the significant implications it would have on the Nigerian economy if the CBN governor were to be arrested and detained.

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The amount of queueing Nigerians have been subjected to in the last couple of weeks is unprecedented. It is equally unbecoming. It’s almost like the country had gone back four decades.

Fights have broken out in queues at bank facilities, filling stations and INEC and LGAs offices across the country. There are trending videos of people stripping naked in protest inside banking halls, others hitting each other with queue dividers and one person has been confirmed dead inside a banking hall, somewhere in Asaba. Nigerians born in the 2000s, GenZs, should be forgiven for thinking the end of the world is here.

On a typical day, a person will queue to collect new currency notes at the bank, rush to queue at the filling station to buy supposedly subsidized petrol at exorbitant prices and then drive to the closest INEC office to queue for permanent voter cards (PVCs). This is not sustainable.

The worst part is that no one is accepting responsibility for the inanity.

ALSO READ: Five Steps INEC Should Take to Address Concerns of Disenfranchisement over PVCs – EiE

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has consistently held that the banks are given enough stock of the new naira notes. The endless queues in and around banks question the veracity of this claim. The CBN has now alleged sabotage by the banks and has deployed a monitoring task force to keep an extra eye on their operations. This shows the frosty state of the relationship between the banks and its regulator.

The CBN inspection and ICPC teams have caught a couple of banks hoarding the new naira notes. They should continue the good work that they’re doing to maintain control.

The reality is that the suffering is real, the pain is widespread and anger is rising to a boiling point. The CBN must act to ease the pain. It is a case of demand and supply – make more new naira notes available across the banks, monitor the deployment and see the relief across the land.

The naira redesign, according to the CBN, is expected to strengthen the economy, reduce the expenditure on cash management, promote financial inclusion, and enhance the bank’s visibility of naira supply. It also seeks to drive the quest for a truly cashless society. It is a good thing.

It is a change management issue. The CBN ought to have managed it better. In systematically phasing out the old note, it should have introduced the new notes earlier and ensured availability in ATMs all over the country with a restriction on the amount that can be cashed per time.

The cashless policy beyond the cash supply challenge is a digital banking infrastructure issue. Digital banking deals with everyday essentials, including checking balances, reviewing transactions, making payments and transferring funds, whether using USSD, banking apps or online/web-based systems.

It is thus a sad commentary on the actual state of the nation’s digital financial infrastructure to see apps and servers collapse under the strain of increased traffic. It shows a lot still needs to be done to strengthen the system. Transactions are not completed; alerts fail to arrive and all sorts of strange messages occur for the first time.

During this season of madness, some banks have been heard whispering to customers that the network fault that they are complaining about is failings from the telecommunications side. Telcos do not need to respond to this allegation. They simply need to work closely with financial institutions to make the transactions seamless. The first step in solving a problem is recognising there is one.

ALSO READ: No to Proposed Excise Duty on Telecommunications Services

One more thing, the CBN must also look at removing ALL charges for online and POS transactions in the short term. It can later look at a reduced fee for these transactions as volume has risen.

The N100 and N50 naira notes are not being redesigned, they should be widely available. CBN must stick with the deadline and work assiduously to ease the flow of cash. The cashless economy cannot happen overnight. We can admit that progress has been made.

On the fuel queues which have persisted for over five months, the NNPC Limited consistently claimed it had enough fuel and urged the public to shun panic buying. The problem has remained.

The DSS, in December, gave the NNPC Limited and marketers 48 hours to end fuel scarcity. We are still here.

The House of Representatives also gave the NNPC Limited a week ultimatum to end the artificial scarcity of petroleum. It has long expired without any respite.

The Presidency has equally waded in with little success. The problem has proven intractable.

The economics is difficult to follow. How can the government be budgeting trillions for fuel subsidies and Nigerians are buying at double the approved price? Something is not right here. In a season of a global oil boom, Nigeria may be the only oil-producing nation with citizens queueing long indeterminate hours for fuel. Something is missing here. Someone is not telling Nigerians the truth. Between NNPC Limited and the major Marketers, there is a gulf.

The citizens are been made to suffer and pay for their failings.

In addition, the federal government cannot continue to pretend to be unaware of the problems that Nigerians are going through. It must, as a minimum, look to fix it, apply necessary sanctions and ensure the availability of petroleum products across the country.

The queue for PVCs is another queueing battle Nigerians are currently contending with. News reports indicate that no fewer than 6.7 million Nigerians have yet to collect their PVCs less than four weeks before the general elections. Over two million of this number are in Lagos and Abuja alone.

Before we heap the blame on the citizens, let us remember the reports of missing PVCs, poor communication about collection points and claims of extortion against INEC officials since the collection of the cards commenced on 12 December. Some people have complained on social media of discrimination from compromised INEC officials stalling the release of PVCs to people from a particular tribe, especially in Lagos State. Many people were told their PVCs had not been printed after over six months of registering. That is untidy on the part of INEC. Bank ATMs cards are now printed on demand why should PVCs take forever?

Thankfully, the umpire has been responsive. It set up collection centres in the wards, started sending text messages to people to ease the process and even extended the collection deadline.

These are good steps. But INEC can do better. INEC must do better. Registration and collection on PVCs should be open all year round in its offices. This ad-hoc, fire-brigade approach doesn’t cut it any more.

The PVC queue is important. It is expected to prove useful in determining the next leader of the country. February 25, 2023, Nigerians will have to queue to cast their votes. Let us queue patiently on the day. When we queue and vote wisely, we can take back Nigeria

Eromosele, a Corporate Communication professional and public affairs analyst lives in Lagos.

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The current economic and sociopolitical environment in which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) possesses certain monopolistic, statutory powers in the creation and management of national currency and foreign reserves is characteristically pained, complicated and stressed.

For instance, on the macroeconomic front, there is the unprecedented presence of virulent stagflation (the concurrent existence of unemployment and inflation) following import restrictions side by side with undue applications of ways and means which conspired with a series of external and internal debts that both aggravated the multiplier effect of money supply and crowded out private sector investment respectively.

This is, in addition, to exchange rate volatility in a heavily import-dependent economy, the uncontrollable balance of payments deficits resulting in dwindling foreign reserves, frightening national budget deficits leading to escalating national borrowings, and grappling with the existential challenge of a huge underground economy.

Like never before, political gladiators now wield state powers to restrain opposition parties from campaigning in certain strategic locations.

With the rising wave of impunity, there are reports of stack naira bills running into billions, held ahead of the 2023 general elections, apparently for vote buying and other political mischiefs.

Physical cash estimably put at hundreds of millions are paid daily across the 36 states and FCT as ransoms to bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, etc. in the land where hunger roars like a ferocious beast in the face of heightening insecurity.

The above structural background is of great national concern and should be tackled with a great sense of national urgency. However, it does appear from the body language of the CBN Governor and as contained in the CBN fact sheet that much of the solution lies in the CBN currency redesign.

This is not surprising as the CBN Governor has since interpreted its mandate beyond its conventional jurisdiction to include agriculture, industries, production, curbing of criminal activities oozing from the political and socio-cultural atmosphere and the moves to cushion the effect of COVID-19.

Is the CBN biting more than it can chew? Well, for one, the CBN Act mainly charged it, inter-alia the responsibility “to promote monetary stability and sound financial structure in Nigeria”.

This mandate reveals that the monetary authorities have limited powers to single-handedly address the above sociopolitical and economic crises hunting the Nigerian state. This symbolic warfare can only be won in the spirit of the sincerity of purpose, patriotism and proper policy coordination between the monetary and fiscal authorities.

Sadly, there are clear signs of rising discordant tones between both authorities. Earlier in October, the Minister of Finance had opened up on national media that her office (which is at the apex of the fiscal authorities) was not carried along with the initiative of currency redesign, even when the extant law made room for the Ministry to be adequately represented through the presence of the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance in any of the CBN board of Directors sessions.

Meanwhile, the CBN Governor, rather than resolving the purported information gap quietly, chose to use the same media to inform Nigerians that he has the backing of the President.

Looking at the circumstances, first the economic realities; between December 2015 and September 2022, currency in circulation doubled from N1.46 trillion to N3.23 trillion.

This period coincided with the heavy quantitative easing of currency production via the monetary printing press which was a clear violation of section 38 of the CBN Act of ways and means lending, alongside the massive central bank intervention funds, particularly during the COVID-19 era to October 2022.

Unfortunately, about 85 per cent of N3.23 trillion (i.e. N2.7455 trillion) in circulation is outside the vaults of commercial banks.

In effect, monetary policy becomes impotent, as a chunk amount of currency is not within the CBN monetary control space.

The CBN is, no doubt, attempting to reverse the ugly trend it earlier induced through currency redesign. Nevertheless, the CBN Governor should not brush aside the fact that the potency of monetary policy also depends on the spread differential between the nominal interest rate and the real interest rate. Presently in Nigeria, the nominal interest rate is higher than the real interest rate which is a potential culprit that may truncate the efficacy of monetary policy.

The current, unusual boom-and-bust behaviour in the foreign exchange market (FOREX) cannot be largely attributed to the naira redesign program as FOREX can importantly be characterized as one exhibiting the animal spirit syndrome.

Indeed, a host of forces ranging from diaspora remittances, oil receipts and theft, FDI, FPI, the tremendous quest for foreign education, and heavy reliance on imported refined products like petro to remote forces like significant political upheavals, flooding etc. all play a role in determining who buys what and who sells what in the FOREX.

By elementary principle, if the demand for the dollar is higher than the supply of the dollar in the Nigerian FOREX then the value of the dollar will appreciate over the value of the naira and vice versa. However, there seem to be some extravagant expectations over the strengthening of the naira against the dollar following the new currency redesign policy.

Well, the naira redesign no doubt has its share of influence on FOREX. For one, it complements the CBN policy move to contract the money supply.

This means that there will be fewer naira units chasing the dollar. Hence naira will at best only tend to gain value over the dollar in the interim.

This effect is inconsequential to the impact the currency redesign will have on the naira via the naira dollar speculative channels.

Lastly, currency redesign cannot earn seignorage (the real revenue government earns from printing national currency) for the government as it is meant to replace existing currency in circulation from which seignorage had already been earned at the time of print.

In all, the currency redesign as an economic solution will not have much of the desired effect on tackling the macroeconomic crises confronting the masses, particularly as stagflation typically poses a policy dilemma.

The monetarists believe that inflation is a purely monetary phenomenon, yet empirical studies have shown that prolonged stagflation succumbs to supply-side solutions, an option that largely depends on the operations of the fiscal authorities.

However, the currency redesign will be an enabler in achieving certain secondary objectives that are within the purview of the fiscal authorities.

First, currency redesign will considerably mop up much liquid in circulation used for terrorist financing and other related criminal activities like banditry, kidnapping, narcotics etc.

It will also aid in minimizing money politics (i.e. guarding against vote-buying activities) in the upcoming general elections in February 2023. Quite frankly, whether these laudable goals will see the light of day strongly depend on the willingness, credibility and preparedness of institutions (EFCC, DSS, NSA, security agencies etc.) which operate within the fiscal authorities.

If these institutions are ready to pursue national interest against all odds, then we will be confident that the sociopolitical environment will once again occupy its pride of place in society where insecurity will be significantly minimized and a newly credible-electoral process is installed to usher in men and women of character, capacity and competence in governance.

One major reason the CBN was granted independence is to be free from any form of political influence. Hence, the CBN Governor should remain politically neutral.

This implies that while the primary reasons for the naira redesign to address currency counterfeiting, the high cost of physical cash management, worsening shortage of clean and fit banknotes in circulation, the enhancement of digital/electronic transacting channels of the naira and the strategic move to bank the unbanked are laudable, he should avoid the temptation of throwing his weight around critical national assignments like tackling social vices and political mischiefs.

The truth is the primary reasons for currency redesign are complementary (not competitive) to the secondary reasons which lie within the scope of the fiscal authorities.

Though the speed at which physical cash flows from the unbanked to the banked is still very unimpressive given the January 31st 2023 deadline, but then, any extension beyond this date will grossly compromise the checks and curbs of money politics.

I hereby strongly appeal to both authorities (fiscal and monetary) for the sake of national interest to put aside their differences having in mind that money is a ‘social contrivance’, a national instrument that makes the sociopolitical and economic alignments inseparable.

*Dr. Eromosele teaches at the Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State