Go cashless

So, Nigerians were inundated with the news from The Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, that the highest currencies, specifically the 200, 500 and 1000 Naira denominations would be redesigned.

While this may appear on the surface like the right thing to do, the question about the timing of this change, considering that no matter how good this policy may be, is wrong, worst still are the roadmap towards retrieving the old currencies.

The intent behind the redesigned currencies is akin to a man in whose house gully erosion has eaten deep into the foundations, but rather than seek for concrete solutions decides to bring up superficial options.

I do not know anywhere in the world where redesign of currency has ever made such currency to increase in value.

Perhaps, the president of the country, who changed currencies during his first regime as a military junta has considered that currency changes will aid in fighting corruption.

Head or tail, one must come to terms with the reality that a country with an estimated 200 million people is ruled by people whose grey matter may have been replaced by pap.

As usual, Nigerian leaders do not think deep to come up with local solutions for global economic problems. The Central Bank wants to keep track of majority of it's currencies. However, we still have numerous challenges with the cashless policy which has been reduced to the proliferation of POS machines and it's operators who charge exorbitant rates for each transaction - whereas the policy was for such POS machines to be used in shops where goods can easily be purchased.

But one cannot blame the merchants who have refused to accept POS machines. For various reasons, mainly technical and network downtimes. Even the instant transfers suffers incessant network downtimes.

These factors mitigate against the complete floating of the cashless policy and hence against reducing the volume of currencies in circulation.