The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) slammed the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday for imposing weekly cash withdrawal limits, claiming that the measure will exacerbate the naira’s depreciation.
According to HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, is chasing shadows after crippling Nigeria’s economy with poor fiscal policies during his roughly 10-year tenure at the apex bank.
The group stated that rather than implementing experimental and unnecessary policies such as the redesigning of the naira and cash withdrawal limits, among other things, the apex bank and the Federal Government should reduce foreign loans and reduce Nigeria’s worsening external debt burden, which experts believe is the primary cause of the naira’s depreciation against the US dollar.
HURIWA also stated that the daily maximum withdrawals via point of sale (PoS) terminal of N20,000 will put thousands of Nigerians out of work when the policy goes into effect nationwide on January 9, 2023.
The group criticized the policy as unfit for a country with a 21.09% inflation rate, 133 million people living in multidimensional poverty, and an unemployment rate of more than 33%, implying that over 23 million employable Nigerians are unemployed.
The CBN directed Deposit Money Banks and other financial institutions on Tuesday to ensure that individuals’ and corporate entities’ weekly over-the-counter cash withdrawals do not exceed N100,000 and N500,000, respectively. The apex bank also set the maximum cash withdrawal per day via PoS terminals and ATMs at N20,000, stating that only N200 denominations would be loaded into the ATMs.
The CBN stated that the new policy follows President Muhammadu Buhari’s November 23, 2022 announcement of redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
HURIWA’s Onwubiko commented, “The CBN under its current governor, Godwin Emefiele, has gone bananas.” The apex bank is unable to increase the value of the naira and is unable to remit over $550 million in trapped funds belonging to foreign airlines, forcing many of them to suspend flights to Nigeria. Manufacturers are also wailing, with many dying or fleeing Nigeria due to a lack of access to foreign currency.
“It has prohibited the supply of forex to Bureau de Changes, among others, and has now imposed withdrawal limits that make Nigeria appear to be a communist economy.” Nonetheless, the naira continues to fall precipitously against the US dollar. Emefiele should be fired because he has exhausted his shallow experimental but ineffective policies.
“The next CBN governor after Emefiele’s sack should borrow the wisdom of the World Bank which advised that to achieve price stabilisation of the naira, the local currency should be allowed to respond to real pressures, and not be bottled up by the CBN.
“Emefiele’s successor should also advise the Federal Government to heed experts’ advice to move away from reliance on foreign assistance to finance developmental projects in the region as means to strengthen the naira.”
