 We're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa. We'll look at the scarcity of the new Naira note as we inch closer to the deadline. Now with few weeks to the deadline given by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for the use of this all Naira note, a cross-session of Nigerians have complained and lamented the scarcity of the note. Don't forget that CBN had stipulated generated 31st 2023 as you know the deadline for issuance and circulation of 200 Naira note, 500 and 1000 denomination of the country's currency following the introduction of the new note in January the 4th of 2023. Now some Nigerians across the country said that you know this curse it is because you know the government is not sincere. There are too many issues. They have criticized the government of Buhari and the fact that a lot has been spent 218 billion Naira but let's just quickly invite our guests this morning. Let's see how what we can make of this issue, the circumstances that were faced with and what could be responsible for all of this. We do have Ambrose Bouquet joining us this morning. Thank you so much for being part of the show. He's a public affairs analyst. Good morning and happy new year. Happy new year to you Ambrose. Quickly, what do you think is responsible for the scarcity of the new Naira note? Firstly, the CBN was not ready for this. The announcement from the CBN for change of the Naira note seems like an accidental decision. It came from the blues. Nigerians were not prepped up for it. Nigerians were not intimated ahead of it. There were no enough orientation and sensitization of Nigeria. There were no advocacies. The CBN before beginning of social, supposed to say advocacies to some key stakeholders like financial institutions, like professional bodies like the accounting bodies, taxation bodies, stock brokers, community leaders, there are no engagements. If something as such as monumental as redesigning of your currency, a lot of stakeholder engagements and advocacy is needed. That was not done. It was not done with anybody. The governor of the central bank just woke up one day and did a press conference and told us that we are going to change Naira notes. That was not even as bad as the duration at which Nigerians were given. It was like a do-or-die affair. Giving us just a few weeks to change all the old Naira notes and giving us a deadline of January 31st to ban the use of the old Naira notes. It's so draconian. It's so... I think there is something more to eat than the anti-corruption or the other reasons that the CBN has spouted. If it is for artistic reasons, why are you making Nigerians suffer? Why are you making Nigerians trying to exchange their money? So in such a short time, even Britain, that has said that they will bring the new pound notes to take the picture of the new king. If you're one of the three years for it to phase out the old ones that has the Queen's picture. A country like the US and other countries were trying to emulate by the so-called cashless economy. No economy is cashless. So when I hear about cashless economy, cashless transactions and all those things, there's no economy in the world that is cashless. All they try to do all over the world is try to reduce the amount of cash transactions because they have good internet. Internet has penetrated almost everywhere in the country there. They have good systems in terms of financial systems. They have so many alternatives for payment platforms. But here, what do we have? We do not have much. Then you are not just redesigning the Naira notes. You came up with some outrageous policies on cash withdrawals and deposits. So it's not thought through. This is very much akin to this CBN Govano. It seems to be, in my opinion, one of the worst CBN Govano's we have had in the last 30 years. I mean, these policies come as if they don't, from you would you look at the dollar withdrawals to 20 dollars, then you come again with, you clamp down on cryptocurrencies saying that they are the ones that makes the effects go up. You come up with all kinds of excuses. Then this CBN Govano was the one that went ahead to print posters branded vehicles that he was going to contest for presidential election while he was sitting CBN Govano. And yet, nothing has happened to him. So it's, you know, it's a wonder of the world why he's sitting there as CBN Govano in the first place and why he's trying to put Nigeria through this suffering. The new Naira notes have come. You're still not making it available. 31st December is three weeks, January is three weeks away. The new Naira notes are not made available. You are still circulating the old Naira notes that you say people should return. People have made their post to return their money to the banks and are still returning the old notes. And the automated tele-missions, the ATM machines, the POS service providers and everybody are still, you know, paying with the old Naira notes. I have not even laid my eyes on the old Naira notes. Because when you go to the banks, you are still giving the old, old, old notes. So the new Naira notes, what are they? Who is holding them back? And you are giving Nigerians a deadline that isn't possible yet you are not distributing. The banks said they have not received, most of the banks said they have not received it because they have engagements with the tellers and the people in the Mokrum and other places and say, why are we not getting Naira notes? They said they have not, the CBN has not given them the notes. So what exactly is the CBN hoping to achieve? I think it is only them that can explain this kind of policy. Well, could the fear of the CBN being probed by the National Assembly following the extent law guiding the printing of the new notes be responsible for the scarcity of, you know, this currency? Well, that is why I said Mr. Godwin and Mephile has disappointed us as the CBN governor. He has not played his role as the CBN governor because if he does, he has a legal department. He has advisors. Unless they advise him or told him the application, he didn't listen because somehow there is kind of power you get you think that you are torturable. This is what is happening because before we decide the Naira note and change it, we must consult with the National Assembly. He didn't do that. He said that he owed nobody any apology. And these are the kind of grand study of public officers that is not disappointing about our Nigerian system. Therefore, the National Assembly should hold him to task and ensure that he does the right thing or that a deadline is extended to a reasonable period of time. And also the quality of the Naira note should be checked because there are complaints from quarters and video demonstrations that suggest the fact that the new Naira note, you know, the ink imprinted in the Naira note comes off when it is a contact with water. So those have not been verified yet, whether it is fake notes or the real new Naira note. But all these things should be investigated and the Nigerians should not suffer from what, you know, something that they don't know about, something that was not touched to, something that was just placed on them. And we shouldn't be suffering in 2023. This is an election year. This is a year where we should be more focused and not be distracted by this antics of the CBN government. Well, so, but do you foresee a situation where we would discard this new Naira because of the challenges surrounding it, the issue of circulation, different issues, and what have you? If you ask me, the first question is what is, what is wrong with old Naira notes? The reasons that are given, oh, some people are stalking it, some people are using it to exchange, burning, some people are using it to do fraud, some people are using it to do terrorism and the rest. Now, if that was the case, the Stibian policy would have ended and the cash withdrawal limit. We have policies in this country that if you want to transfer beyond central limits of money, that the bank should contact the financial institutions, for example, ELCC and the rest. What has happened to that policy? Why would people transfer a huge amount of money without being tracked? The ones that have been tracked by foreign agencies, what have they done to them? So there are policies in place that make sure that even limitations on withdrawal, if you are strongly, there are more to be withdrawn per week, then that should be able to curtail the reasons why you are changing the Naira design in the first place. Bringing two of them at the same time smacks on something that was not thought through. So if it will save Nigerians the stress, if it will save our economy from collapsing, if it will bring control hardship for Nigerians, then I'm in support of withdrawing these Naira nodes. Because even when you change the design, there is not much difference between what is existing and what has been introduced. I can't see the new security features, they just change of color. It's the main thing that people see, the change of color. What are the features? What are the security features that distinguishes this between the other? So it is not something that is palatable. It's not something that even grows the economy. It's just an exercise in the weeds of the civilian government. So but I'd also like to ask, with all of the back end forces going on, people complaining about the standard of order quality, that would be the quality of this node and the fact that it's not available. Are there implications of all of this? Is there an implication for our economy? What impact does it have? The immediate impact is already manifesting, which is slowing down transactions. There are a lot of instances where people are rejecting the new Naira nodes because there were not enough sensitization. That is already a big problem because for a leger tender to be affected, it has to be accepted by the citizens. So when a large chunk of the citizens, especially the unbanked citizens, do not even realize that we have a new Naira node, there's a problem. It's a big problem. It would snow down the economy. If you go to the major markets, open markets in Nigeria, if you go to the mitref markets of this world or ocean markets or Dumota and all those things where cash is being used, then you will find you exactly understand what we are talking about. These markets generate billions of Naira every day. And if this new currency is being rejected by the majority of the traders, then you can see how much we are losing in just like two or three markets alone. Astrophilates is into many markets around Nigeria. Then you understand the sheer volume of how much we are losing per day. So if we affect the economy, it will surely, surely affect the economy. The biggest problem was that it's not even available to be spent. At least when you see it every day and people are getting to spend it, gradually to be accepted by those who are not even hearing about it or are informed of it. But when it is not even seen, it's discussed. There's a problem. Why would you design a Naira node and make it sketch? Even three weeks to the deadline, you do yourself created. So that's marks of I would like to curtail my word here, but I am really, really angry about this. And so I'm angry with so many Nigerians that a public servant that is being paid by taxpayer money wants to subject us on necessary hardship. And do you also think that this would have any implication on the dollar in terms of depreciation? It doesn't have any implication. The dollar is still running at the open market where it is for a long time. These are people just come up and make policies and make statements that have no reading in economics. If you are not a producing economy, if you like, re-design your Naira and paint it 10 times in a month, it will not change your value. The value is intricate on the value of exports you do. Are we a production economy? We are a consumption economy. You buy almost everything. You think by design the color of your currency will change your value of your Naira. I think even those of us who are not experts in economics can't think this in an elementary manner. So people should stop fooling us by statements that don't add up in economics. And as we cost this down Ambrose, there are also other quarters that are saying that it might also be a ploy of the ruling class that some persons have stashed, you know, these funds. We don't know if that's the case. There's also some people who say that if you want to see the Naira note, then go to the parties. You see, you get to find these bundles because when you go to parties, you see people flaunting the notes and then they tell you if you probably want to, I don't know how to describe that kind of trade that goes on in the parties, but that's what it is. What do you make to all of this insinuation? When you create artificial scarcity, when you create a problem, when you just recreate a problem from a non-existent problem, this is what you get. First of all, when did this madness about buying mint notes start? It started when the CBN refused to take, you know, destroy bad Naira notes and then mop it away from the system. Before, prior to maybe the 90s, even in the early millennium, when banks where you have 30 Naira notes, you take it to the bank, then exchange it for clean Naira notes, mint notes. When you go to the bank those days, you actually get, you come out with mint Naira notes because when you get your money back to bank, you're supposed to go and they're supposed to do what they process the 30 Naira notes, they destroy it, Nigeria's equity minting company destroys these Naira notes and they make sure that our notes are healthy and hygienic. But over the last 15 to 10, 15 years, what we have witnessed are that the banks themselves have said that the CBN and the Nigeria's equity minting company does not do not collect 30 Naira notes anymore or bad Naira notes from them. So what you have is that the bank Naira notes and the dirty ones keep on, you know, circulating when they're supposed to have been destroyed. And then you then create a scarcity of mint notes. So what do people do? Because are people like spending the parties in mint Naira notes? Those days was not a big deal because when you go to the bank, the money you had paid was mint. And then it became a commodity for sale in the recent times because people want clean notes. And then if you want to collect 20,000, for example, the cashier will tell you bring 26,000 or bring so-so. So it became a transaction. Some people will hulk it in parties. You wonder how the lay person on the street gets access to huge bundles of Naira notes and start hulking it. Maybe this withdrawal limit, we will reduce it. But even an aspect of withdrawal limit, when it starts, you find that people will see you having access to huge bundles of Naira notes. But when the Naira notes are available, if you walk into the bank and you can access it, who would patronize those who hulk mint Naira notes? So to solve this problem is either we withdraw this new Naira notes that is not adding value to anybody or we extend with maybe six months the duration by which we can exchange new Naira notes and the old ones. And then that perhaps will make some sense and give Nigeria some opportunities to adjust to the new reality. All right. Thank you so much, Ambrose Bokeh, for being part of the show this morning. We appreciate your time. Thank you for having me. And that's the size of our conversation on the breakfast, who is speaking with a public affairs analyst looking at the scarcity of the new Naira note and the fact that we're just counting down to the 31st of January, what's going to happen. All the government, we draw it. We have an extension of a period to have this currency in circulation. If you missed out on any part of the conversation, it's fine to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And do subscribe to our YouTube channel at Plus TV Africa, Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. My name is Messia Popo. Have a great morning.