Nigerians have suffered hardships while conducting e-transactions after the CBN implemented the Naira redesign policy.

The CBN boss addressed this at the end of the two-day monetary policy committee meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, March 22.

Emefiele said:  “I must apologise. Yes, online channels fail. But no doubt it is as a result of the deluge of online transactions that hit the banking industry. But it is being resolved.

“On a daily basis, our payments system management department monitor the online payment platforms so as to make sure that when there is a downtime, they are quickly resolved so that transactions can go on smoothly.”

He also praised fintechs for facilitating smooth transactions for Nigerians by reducing the strain on traditional banks.

On money supply, Emefiele said the implementation of the naira redesign policy has resulted in the reduction in currency outside the banks.

He said: “At the beginning of the naira redesign policy we said that there was about N3.23 trillion in circulation out of which only N500 billion was held in the banking system, while N2.73 trillion was outside the banks.

“It was published yesterday that currency in circulation is close to N1 trillion. CBN will continue to pump the newly redesigned currency into the market.

The truth is that at some point we will need to reassess to know whether the currency in circulation has attained an optimal level so as to put in place measures to ensure that we don’t go to the level where we were when people kept money outside the banking system for their own benefit

Senior lawyers and top politicians, who spoke separately to The PUNCH, stated that Emefiele’s continuous stay as the CBN governor was dangerous to the economy.

They said this as the Chairman of Ward 6 in the Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State,  Mr Nduka Erikpume, in a telephone chat with one of our correspondents on Sunday, said the CBN governor had registered as an APC member.

When asked whether Emefiele had registered in the APC,  Erikpume said, “Yes, he has registered since February 2021. He is our member.”

Amid widespread condemnations of his alleged presidential ambition, The PUNCH on Sunday learnt that the CBN governor had headed to a Federal High Court in Abuja to seek a constitutional interpretation on his non-resignation while pursuing his political interests.

Sources said that the CBN governor had reached out to a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Dr Mike Ozekhome (SAN), to seek interpretation of the constitution and public service rules on public servants seeking elective positions while in office.

A highly placed source in the CBN told The PUNCH that the case had been scheduled for today (Monday).

He said, “Emefiele has just briefed Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) as his lawyer. He has just filed a case in court and is coming up tomorrow (today, Monday).”

Several efforts by The PUNCH correspondent to get the reliefs being sought by Emefiele from the source proved abortive.

Although the details of the suit were still sketchy Sunday night, another source in the APC said Ozekhome was taking up the matter “for certain constitutional interpretations.”

Three interest groups – the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Friends of Emefiele and Emefiele Support Group – last week paid N100m  for the APC presidential expression of interest and nominations forms for Emefiele.

But the CBN governor, in a tweet on Saturday, said he was still waiting for God’s direction, adding that he would purchase the N100m forms himself if he entered the presidential race.

He said that he would continue to serve the country in his capacity as CBN governor until he received divine counsel to contest for a higher office.

But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kunle Adegoke, in a telephone with The PUNCH on Sunday, said the CBN governor should resign his appointment and become a politician if he intended to contest in the 2023 general elections.

He said, “The governor of the central bank is expected to be impartial and not be driven by his own personal interests or the interests of a political party. Emefiele, as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, represents all Nigerians and in that capacity, he is obliged under the constitution to serve each person irrespective of their political party or affiliation.

“With that evident, it would be grossly irresponsible for anybody to be agitating for the CBN governor to join politics. The CBN governor is not entitled as a citizen of Nigeria to contest for a political office, but where he desires to do so, he will have to resign his appointment and become a politician, strictly speaking.

“The honourable thing for him to do is to resign if he is the one behind all these calls for him to come and contest. Where he is not the one, he ought to have come out earlier than now because we could see on social media, the branded vehicles and then the claim that farmers have spent N100m to buy him a nomination form of the All Progressives Congress. That is questionable. The few farmers who are debtors under the Anchors Borrowers’ Programme cannot now be deploying their resources towards this.

“That also questions the integrity of funds and the whole ABP project. Emefiele is supposed to stay away from such things that will lead to unnecessary scandals.”

At the end of its September meeting on Tuesday, September 22, the MPC said the majority of its members voted to reduce the monetary policy rate (MPR) by 100 basis points, from 12.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent, while adjusting its symmetric corridor around the MPR from +200 and -500 basis points to +100 and -700 basis points.

The aim is to make more money available for lending to critical sectors as the economy braces for a looming recession in the third quarter.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while presenting the decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, after its two-day meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, September 22.

Emefiele said: “After the consideration of the three policy options, members were of the opinion that the option to loose will complement the Bank’s commitment to sustain the trajectory of the economic recovery and reduce the negative impact of COVID-19. In addition, the liquidity injections are expected to stimulate credit expansion to the critically impacted sectors of the economy and offer impetus for output growth and economic recovery.”

The IMF had on April 28 approved Nigeria’s request for emergency financial assistance of $3.4bn to support the country’s efforts in addressing the severe economic impact of the COVID-19 shock and the sharp fall in oil prices.

The Washington-based fund also published the country’s letter of intent in a detailed report released on April 29.

In the letter, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, pledged that fuel subsidy would not return.

The sharp drop in crude oil prices on the back of the spread of coronavirus saw the landing cost of petrol hit a record low in March, wiping off subsidy on the product. The Federal Government, on March 18, reduced the pump price of petrol to N125 per litre from N145.

The Federal Government told the IMF in the letter dated April 21, 2020 “The recent introduction and implementation of an automatic fuel price formula will ensure fuel subsidies, which we have eliminated, do not reemerge,”

In a report on August 17, Reuters quoted sources as saying that the World Bank was unlikely to approve a much-needed $1.5bn for Nigeria in August as planned due to concerns over desired reforms.

It said the World Bank, which had said Nigeria could be heading towards its greatest fiscal crisis in 40 years, had aimed to bring the loan to its board for approval last month, but the sources said negotiations over what Nigeria would do to secure it were incomplete.

According to the report, World Bank loans are often contingent upon reforms, and it has not outlined any demands, but said previously that it was ‘recommending’ a more unified, flexible exchange rate.

Reuters said fuel subsidies and electricity tariffs were also being discussed, adding that a banking source said the loan could now not be approved until October.