APC’s hard fight against Buhari’s legacy

VANGUARD

By Emmanuel Aziken

Some All Progressives Congress, APC governors were yesterday huddled with President Muhammadu Buhari in the Presidential Villa where they were believed to be engaging him on some recent policies of his government that could well define the president’s legacy.

Principal among the policies is the Cash Withdrawal Policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN more than 100 days ago.

The policy principally aims to curtail the amount of cash available in the system.

Governor Godwin Emefiele claims that the policy aims to bring the amount of cash in the system under the control of the CBN. Given that the availability of cash within and outside the banking system helps the CBN in the administration of its monetary policy objectives, few would blame the CBN governor over the policy thrust.

Specifically, by adjusting the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR, that is, the amount of cash that the CBN requires the banks to keep with it, the CBN is able to fight inflation, which is one of the key jobs of the apex bank.

However, as Emefiele has lamented of recent, a substantial amount of funds is kept by people outside the banking system. These folks keep the money in cash because they do not want to be subjected to scrutiny.

Among these are kidnappers, bandits and others. It is instructive that earlier this week it was reported that bandits came out to the Maiduguri – Monguno Highway to distribute bundles of N100,000 old naira notes to travelers. That was because the old notes were becoming useless to them and a prick of conscience pushed them into an unusual act of generosity.