29092019 - 2023: Controversy over Pastor Tunde Bakare's prophecy on Buhari's

PAGE 30— SUNDAY VANGUARD, SEPTEMBER 29, 2019
Furore <strong>over</strong> CBN’s new cashless policy
By Victor ‘<strong>Tunde</strong> Oso
THE Central Bank of Nigeria’s direc
tive that, from Wednesday, September
18, 2019, Deposit Money Banks would impose
three per cent processing fees for
withdrawals and two per cent processing
fees for lodgments of amounts above
N500,000 for individual accounts has
stirred some contr<strong>over</strong>sies among members
of the public.
The apex bank’s circular to DMBs stated that
for corporate accounts, banks would charge five
per cent processing fees for withdrawals and
three per cent processing fee for lodgments of
amounts above N3 million. The statement said
charges were introduced to drive development
and modernisation of the country’s payment system
in line with the Vision 2020 Goal of being
amongst the top 20 economies by the year 2020.
This directive, coming so soon after Federal
G<strong>over</strong>nment announced plan to increase Value
Added Tax (VAT) from 5% to 7.5% has generated
some criticisms and reactions in the polity.
Firing the first salvo, Country Director of Development
Alternatives, Inc., Dr. Joe Abah, tweeted
that the CBN had acted as if the nation is still
under military rule, criticising the arbitrary
manner the apex bank made the announcement
and its implementation.
In other reactions monitored by Sunday Vanguard
on the social media, Dr. Dipo Awojide,
Senior Lecturer in Strategy, Nottingham Business
School said: “Why do I need to pay an extra
2% when I deposit <strong>over</strong> N500,000 or pay 3%
when I withdraw same? After paying Account
Maintenance Charges monthly, ATM maintenance
Charge, Stamp Duty Charges and Transaction
Charges when I transfer to other banks?
This cashless policy is confusing.
For Ayobami Oyalowo, no matter what anyone
says, this new CBN policy is punitive and
Group Managing Director, Sona Group of Industries,
Ajai Musaddi, says import restrictions
task local producers to improve and increase
capacity Musaddi maintains if g<strong>over</strong>nment
will not ban those items, which the economy
has capacity to produce, Nigeria will continue
to be dumping ground for foreign products. Excerpts:
TFederal G<strong>over</strong>nment’s agric policy
he agricultural sector of Nigeria, which
remains a major employer in the past,
has suffered years of neglect as Nigeria
has spent decades relying on oil to provide
much-needed foreign exchange and g<strong>over</strong>nment
revenue. There may be lots of people
working on farms but a lack of investment
has led to low productivity. In addition, not all
available agricultural land is being used. It is
estimated that just <strong>over</strong> a third of available
land is being cultivated. Following a big drop
in the oil price in recent years, the country has
renewed its interest in agriculture. If this enthusiasm
can be converted into greater investment
then the country should be able to produce
more food. Therefore, the Federal G<strong>over</strong>nment
is on the right track to be encouraging
everyone—young or old—to take up farming
as an occupation so that the Nigerian
economy can be less dependent on crude oil
proceeds. G<strong>over</strong>nment should in fact allocate
a higher percentage of the annual budget to
agriculture in order to boost agricultural production.
A country that can feed itself has
solved more than half of its problems. That
there are no immediate results should actually
challenge g<strong>over</strong>nment more because it is a
long-term investment and if it is sustained, it
would lead to real growth for the economy.
The Federal g<strong>over</strong>nment should also revamp
the agricultural institutes by privatizing them
since it has been proved in business that privatization
of companies is the best way to efficiency
and effectiveness in management.
Apart from funding, the local farmers that
presently constitutes the largest mass of agricultural
production in the country should be
encourage through direct supply of fertilizers,
improved seedlings et-cetera. The farmers
should equally be educated on the advantages
of improved seedlings and how to use
them by the agricultural extension workers.
Good that state g<strong>over</strong>nments are also joining
the agric revolution train. G<strong>over</strong>nment should
equally grant the local farmers agricultural
credit facilities through the agricultural banks
located across the country by making the various
traditional leaders to stand as surety for
the loans to make the rec<strong>over</strong>y easy. To ensure
long sustainability, agricultural marketing
board can also be resuscitated to determine
price of agricultural products in order to boost
agriculture and encourage more people, par-
•Ahmed, Finance, Budget & National
Planning
exploitative, with banks already stealing from
us and making huge kill with all forms of spurious
accounts maintenance charges, ATM Withdrawal
Charges, SMS charges et cetera. This is
pure wickedness and should not stand.
Ola Ranger said: “The charge should be on
withdrawal, why charge for deposit? This will
surely discourage people from taking such monies
to the bank. I foresee a spike in the sale of
vaults and fire proof cabinets.
According to Martina Onomiwu, “expect robberies
of all sorts, as I trust my Alaba brothers
that they will rather keep their millions at home
than allow 5% of it to go.”
Alexander Phillip said, for clarity, there are
reasons why people make large withdrawals,
•Emefiele, CBN G<strong>over</strong>nor
This new CBN policy is punitive and
exploitative, with banks already
stealing from us and making huge
kill with all forms of spurious
accounts maintenance charges, ATM
Withdrawal Charges, SMS charges,
et cetera. This is pure wickedness
and should not stand
it comes at a cost. I have led bank branches. If
there is no cash or it's not much, some folks will
be alive today. Cash demand leads to excess
vault limits. You don't want to witness such robbery.
Cash pilferages have killed some small
businesses. I believe we need to reduce our cash
handling.
For Ogunmekan Seun, g<strong>over</strong>nment is just finding
a way to limit our dependence on physical
cash. If it was for money making, they won't
even make the charges high so that everybody
will fall into the trap. It is welcome and long
<strong>over</strong>due.
Rhynos Consult said: If it is for N500, 000 and
above lodgments, it will not affect the poor, seeing
that poor people don't make such lodgments.
I think it is a type of tax against the rich.
The CBN, however, responding to the outcry,
said on its Twitter handle that the Cashless Policy
deposit/withdrawal charge is only on the
amount in excess of the limit. “For instance, if
you deposit a cash of N501, 000.00. N1, 000.00
is in excess of the limit. The bank will charge you
2% of N1, 000.00, which is N20.00.”
IMPORT RESTRICTIONS: Local industries can cope — Musaddi, Sona Group MD
By Victor <strong>Tunde</strong> Oso
ticularly the private sector to go into large
scale farming. This administration has always
held that Nigeria must be able to produce
what it consumes and consume what it produces.
In other words, this administration says
it wants Nigeria to attain what is called food
security or food sufficiency. The way to go is
wholesale support for the agric and agro-allied
sector.
G<strong>over</strong>nment had in recent
years embarked on an
advocacy campaign that
emphasised the ‘made-in-
Nigeria’ brand. I wonder
why this campaign
stopped
Import restrictions on food items
There are still some basic food items, which
are wholly Nigerian that the Federal G<strong>over</strong>nment
needs to completely ban. One of these is
biscuits and confectionery products. There are
competent local manufacturers in the country
who can meet consumers’ demands. G<strong>over</strong>nment
should look at the production and
consumption. Continued importation of biscuits
and confectioneries are undermining the
production capacity of local companies. This
has not enabled these companies to produce
at full capacity. In fact they are producing at
below 50% capacity because of continued
importation of biscuits and confectionery
products, which local industries have capacity
to produce.
Furthermore, the ban on products like rice
and others is good. If g<strong>over</strong>nment will not ban
such items, which our local economy has capacity
to produce, Nigeria will continue to be
dumping ground for foreign products. The ban
too would challenge the local producers to
improve and increase capacity. For instance,
a Biscuits producer can look at his production
at 100 tons per day and if he’s able to sell
it, he would be encouraged to push up his capacity
to 150 tons or 200 tons per day. This is
what has been affecting us (Sona) too in the
biscuits production. We have had to delay the
extension of our 7 biscuit lines to 12-16 lines,
which we are however, going to embark upon
in the next two-three years, especially as we
have implicit confidence in the Nigerian econ-
and the most is buying of goods. If the man who
sells plumbing materials has a PoS, and you are
buying goods worth N600,000, the time you use
to go to the bank for withdrawals is automatically
saved because you'll pay via his machine
at no extra cost and same thing to the seller. If the
seller has no PoS machine, and you pay charges
for on-the-counter withdrawal, he also will pay
charges for on-the-counter deposit.
Sola Akinbo however, provides a different perspective,
maintaining it is a good policy. Cash
driven economy is expensive for the CBN as well.
We need record of transactions which cash does
not offer us. Cash handling is expensive for banks.
And it doesn't mean people can't pay, it's just that
• Musaddi
omy. Note that local products are fresh, new
and healthier also its improves the body immune
system because they hit the market immediately
they are out of production line,
whereas imported products, especially Biscuits
or any other food items, which have short
lifespan, could even expire before they reach
our shores. These, apparently are reasons why
g<strong>over</strong>nment may be restricting importation
of food items.
Local products competitive in quality with
imported ones
Nigeria has been an import dependent nation
for as long as anyone can remember. We
import milk, rice, stock fish, vegetable oil, slippers,
canned fish, tomato paste, refined petrol
and even toothpick! I understand this has left
President Muhammadu Buhari very upset and
displeased; and rightly so. Come to think of it,
Nigerian companies have come of age.
There’s no justification for our lack of confidence
in local items produced in this country.
With tenacity of purpose, appropriate technology,
including smart technology and ruggedness,
local companies can compete with
their counterparts in Europe and advanced
countries. Many, like Sona, have invested a
lot of resources in our workers through training
and retraining, many, who have been
trained in Europe, Asia and in the United
States, to ensure they compete favourably with
their counterparts anywhere in the world. Added
to these are investment in acquisition of
the latest technologies in equipment, design
and production. All these are translated in
products, which can compete with their European
counterparts. As we speak, Sona biscuits
are stocked by big supermarkets all <strong>over</strong> the
country. Nigerians should be proud of goods
manufactured locally. G<strong>over</strong>nment had in
recent years embarked on an advocacy campaign
that emphasised the ‘made-in-Nigeria’
brand. I wonder why this campaign stopped.
G<strong>over</strong>nment needs to discourage people from
always looking for imported goods, as some
of the imported items are actually of low quality.
A product that is made in Nigeria to the
highest standard should make us proud, as
opposed to longing for a made in China product.
Sona Group’s staying power in <strong>over</strong> 30
years of operation
The key is in our diversified and deliberate
corporate policies of our well-trained manpower,
local sourcing of our raw materials
and deliberate recycled policy. The only way
for us at Sona to <strong>over</strong>come the menace of low
capacity utilisation is to ensure that we stick
to usage of local raw materials and inputs for
producing our products. For instance we are
using 100% sorghum, which we source locally
and g<strong>over</strong>nment has to be more supportive
for enhancing the tariff rates for the other Raw
materials like malted Barley being imported
against Sorghum usages. Again, we are guided
by the principle that the employee who receives
the necessary training is more able to
perform in their job, because the training will
avail the employees a greater understanding
of their responsibilities within their role, and
in turn build their confidence. This confidence
will enhance their <strong>over</strong>all performance and
this can only benefit the company. This has
ensured that our workers are competent and
on top of changing industry standards to help
us remain as a leader and strong competitor
within our industry.
As a foremost conglomerate in Nigeria with
up to 10 subsidiaries, cutting across diverse
sectors and making significant investments
in each, one of Sona’s subsidiaries, Shongai
Packaging Industries Ltd is a major player in
plastic packaging manufacturing; producing
several domestic and industrial products including
injection moulded plastic furniture,
storage crates, basins and buckets, rugged
crates for beer & beverage, cosmetic jars, plastic
pallets, among others.
Owing to these extensive ranges of plastic
products and the desire to facilitate a healthy
environment in Nigeria, we actively engage
in plastics recycling. The plastic wastes are
processed into raw materials, which are then
used to manufacture various plastic products.
One of the pivotal reasons for the company’s
investment in multiple recycling plants is to
enable the efficacious eradication of plastic
waste pollution in Nigeria.
We maintain that a clean and safe environment
for the citizens should be the priority of
every manufacturing company in the country.
Our goal is to promote public health
through our recycling, which goes beyond
production as we see it as an avenue to add
considerable value to Nigeria as a nation.