CPPE report says cash crunch hampered social and business activities
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Naira shortage fiasco has cost the economy N20 trillion after 70 per cent cash mop up by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hampered social life and shrank business activities, says the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE).
The economic think tank lamented the acute cash scarcity since December 2022 has crippled economic activities and posed a major risk to livelihoods.
“Millions of citizens have slipped into penury and destitution as a result of the disruptions and tribulations perpetrated by the currency redesign policy, especially the mopping up of over 70 per cent of cash in the economy,” CPPE Director Muda Yusuf argued in a report on the naira redesign policy.
Yusuf spoke up on Sunday, before the CBN on Monday directed banks to obey the Supreme Court ruling on March 3 which extended naira swap deadline to December 31.
“Nigerians have not been this traumatised in recent history. The economy is gradually grinding to a halt because of the collapse of payment systems across all platforms,” he said.
“Digital platforms are performing sub-optimally because of congestion; physical cash is unavailable because the CBN has sucked away over 70 per cent of cash in the economy; and the expected relief from the Supreme Court judgement has not materialised.
“The citizens are consequently left in a quandary. The banks claimed that the CBN has not officially communicated the Supreme Court judgment to them for any actions.”
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Crippled trading stoke job losses
“The President has maintained a worrying muteness on the judgment; the market women and men are waiting to hear from President Buhari or the CBN governor on the legal tender status of old currency notes,” CPPE said, per The PUNCH.
Curiously, it added, there was an apparent reluctance or unwillingness by the federal government and the CBN to comply with the Supreme Court judgment, describing this as very disturbing and inexplicable.
“Meanwhile, Nigerians continue to groan in the adversity inflicted by the acute cash shortage amid rejection of old currency notes by market operators, refusal by banks to accept the old notes, silence by the Presidency on the Supreme Court judgement; and absence of official pronouncement by the CBN on the issue.
“Since the onset of the cash crisis, the Nigerian economy has lost an estimated N20 trillion.
“These losses arose from the deceleration of economic activities, crippling of trading activities, stifling of the informal economy, contraction in the agricultural sector and the paralysis of the rural economy.
“There are also corresponding job losses in the hundreds of thousands.”
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