Honourable Aliyu Sani Madaki, is the chairman House of Representatives committee on Lake Chad. He represents Dala Federal Constituency of Kano State, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he faulted the new policy by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Bureau De Change, concluding that the policy will be a disaster to the country’s economy if allowed. Kolawole Daniel brings excerpts: RECENTLY, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN under the leadership of its new governor Mr Godwin Emefiele came up with new guidelines for BDC operators. As a lawmaker, how do you see this new policy? My reaction, first of all, is to look at the policy and what it intends to achieve and what benefits will such a policy give to the Nigerian people, especially looking at the problem of unemployment we’re having in Nigeria. We’re one of the countries with the highest number of unemployed people, so whichever policy the government or its agencies will bring will have to be looked into vis-a-vis its contribution to the development of the economy and manpower resources of the country. So, when I saw the policy, my reaction was “What is happening with our policy implementors in Nigeria? Do they really come to government to help it achieve some of its objectives, which I’m sure one of the objectives of this government is to provide employment for our teeming unemployed youth. But incidentally, this policy, if allowed to be implemented, will create unemployment and retard some of the progress made in that sector. From my own analysis and findings, we have thousands of people that are gainfully employed through the Bureau De Change, and if you bring this policy, most of them will be forced out of the job market. I think that will be very dangerous to the economy and the country, especially considering the problem we’re having in the north eastern part of the country. The House passed a resolution calling on the CBN to suspend this policy. A member had argued that the policy was targeted at a section of the country, apparently referring to the North. Do you see it that way too? To be very sincere with you, some of my colleagues that I spoke with that day alluded to that fact. Those that are from the south said this man just came in newly. To them, maybe he doesn’t understand the terrain well, and he’s bringing the policy that will be perceived as going against a certain section of our society, referring to people of the northern part. There’s this belief rightly or wrongly that most people involved in money exchange come from the northern part, and if you bring this policy of telling people to now deposit money amounting to around N70 million, I don’t know how many of those companies can afford that, because based on the new policy, you now need to deposit N35 million as cautionary deposit that will be put in a non-interest yielding account. As a businessman, when you put N35 million, not to talk of the other N35 million as your share capital, which makes it N70 million, to me the policy does not make any sense. That was why as a House, we passed a resolution calling on the CBN to suspend the policy. If you may recall, when the current Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II brought a policy of cashless banking, the House asked him to suspend it. And CBN at that time suspended the policy.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 11:09:32 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015