Navigating Policy Challenges: Striving for Consistency and Economic Stability

I appreciate the challenges the BAT government is facing, and I honestly empathize with him. We saw these coming. Some of us spoke about our current bus stop long ago. But those comfortable in their corners either mocked or laughed it off as a joke.

Some time ago, the CBN encouraged individuals to open personal domiciliary accounts with naira component incentives. These accelerated inflows from diasporans. The same CBN, though under a new administration in less than one year, is reversing some of those policies. Until one wants to pay as little as $100 to renew the membership of an organization one belongs to or approach the banks to pay the school fees for a ward abroad, you wouldn’t know what people suffer to get them done.

One thing that has bedeviled our governance system is policy somersaults in which we take 1 step forward and 10 backward. Unfortunately, we do not appreciate investors watching these inconsistent financial and economic behaviors to make investment decisions.

Apart from our internal issues of insecurity, I firmly believe that our economists have yet to help matters with the textbook economic advice they give to the government. We forget that most economic theories would only work where people obey laws and orders. For example, why would anybody in Nigeria allow buyers and sellers of foreign currency in the official FX market to quote rates they find comfortable when governors would exchange part of their monthly naira allocations for dollars from banks, central bank subsidizing dollars for the powerful elites, and political office holders mopping up dollars everywhere once there is an election like we noticed in the last presidential elections? Did the Presidential candidates not share dollars with delegates in the previous election?

We also know that most kickbacks are no longer in Naira but in dollars. So, the first step is to stop “themselves” from the billions of dollars being round-tripped monthly, encourage exports that would bring back foreign currencies, find a way of stopping over-invoiced contracts with kickbacks in dollars, etc.

Grace and peace!!!