26012020 - How bad an example was set in Zamfara

PAGE 6—SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 26, 2020
•The Owhorode of Olomu Kingdom, HRM Dr R. L. Ogbon JP, flanked by
Olorogun Moses Taiga, President-General, Olomu Kingdom and UPU, and
others while handing over car keys to Comrade Ufuoma Aganre, the
Chairman Olomu Vigilante group.
CBN’s CRR DECISION: Different views greet
declaration on banks’ cash reserves
By Victor ‘Tunde Oso
THE decision of the
Monetary Policy
Committee (MPC) of Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
to raise the cash reserve
ratio by 500 basis points
to 27.5 per cent, from 22.5
per cent, while leaving all
other policy parameters
constant last Friday, has
continued to generate different
reactions from economists
and financial sector
analysts.
The CRR is used to determine
the minimum deposit
commercial banks
must hold in reserves with
the CBN rather than lend
out. It influences funds
available at the bank’s
disposal to create loans.
CBN Governor, Godwin
Emefiele had also said after
the meeting that
“Maintaining the monetary
policy rate at its
present level is essential
for sustainable support to
growth before any possible
adjustment.”
Most analysts had predicted
that the CBN would
leave rates unchanged.
Razia Khan, Chief Economist
for Africa and the
Middle East at Standard
Chartered Bank said the
“Announcement is still a
tightening of liquidity and
near-term, we would expect
market interest rates
to adjust to this.”
Inflation stood at
11.98% in December, rising
for the fourth straight
month, worsened by Nigeria’s
border closure in August
to fight smuggling.
The CBN said inflation
was outside its band of 6%
to 9% and that it wanted to
curtail inflationary pressure.
Firing the first salvo, development
economist,
Odilim Enwegbara, who
lambasted the pronouncement,
said if you increase
cash reserve ratio (CRR),
you are automatically reducing
liquidity availability.
“By this action you are
reducing the lending ratio
to the real sector.”
According to Enwegbara,
“this, I call the blind
fighting of inflation, which
is at a high cost to the real
sector economy. Of course,
liquidity crunch only compounds
a country’s economic
problems especially
a country that is in need
of promoting investment,
jobs and prosperity that
lifts millions of its citizens
out of poverty. That is why
as high cash reserve ratio
puts more pressure on interest
rates, it automatically
pushes inflation up.”
“So, rather than achieving
the main reason for
mopping, which is to reduce
inflation, high cost of
borrowing increases inflation.
This defeats the earlier
monetary policy goal,”
he said.
A former President, Association
of National Accountants
of Nigeria
(ANAN), Dr. Samuel Nzekwe,
said the increase in
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR),
from 22.5 per cent to 27.5
per cent, would only reduce
banks’ funds and
make them have less to
lend investors thereby reducing
money in circulation.
The former ANAN boss
stressed the need to combine
Monetary and Fiscal
Policies; as well as tackle
insecurity to ensure a drastic
reduction in inflation.
From left: Nancy Ameh, Nollywood Actress; Brand Manager, Hollandia Evap
Milk, Chi Limited, Bose Ogunyemi; Brand Ambassador Hollandia Evap Milk,
Mercy Johnson Okojie and Brand Manager, Operations and Activation, Chi
Limited, Godspower Utawure during the Hollandia Evap Milk Consumer engagement
at the movie premiere of ‘The Legend of Inikpi’.
However, Mr. Ambrose
Omordion, the Chief Operating
Officer, InvestData
Ltd., said rising inflation
concern made the
committee to vote for adjustment
in CRR.
Omordion said that the
decision was in order to
curtail consumer price index
that stood at 11.98 per
cent in December.
He noted that the apex
bank’s unconventional
monetary policy targeted
at economic stimulation
was yielding the expected
result apart from spike in
inflation figure.
“Higher CRR will reduce
money in the system and
trigger assets repricing
that may lead to slight upward
adjustment in interest
rate because of competition
in the money mar-
Senate probes alleged CBN Non-Remittance of
N20 trillion Stamp Duty
By Henry Umoru
THE Senate is investigat
ing alleged failure by
the Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN, to remit stamp duty
of over N20 trillion into the
Federation Account.
Chairman, Senate Committee
on Banking, Insurance
and Other Financial Institutions,
Senator Uba Sani, All
Progressives Congress, APC,
Kaduna Central, who disclosed
this, however, warned
against inflammatory and
potentially damaging comments
on the issue.
Sani said the committee
had received petitions on the
allegation against the CBN,
however explaining that, in
the past six months, the Red
Chamber had been investigating
the matter.
The senator who, pleaded
with members of the public,
especially critical stakeholders,
not to be in a hurry in
coming to a conclusion that
the CBN has actually erred,
stated that since he and other
members of the Committee
2023: Any Igbo man thinking of
presidency is living in a fool’s
paradise — Prof. Okolie
By Ikechukwu Odu
THE National President
of Nigerian Political
Science Association, NPSA,
Prof. Aloysius-Michael Okolie,
has said that no Igbo man
can emerge as the President
of Nigeria come 2023 due to
the blatant deprivations the
people of the region continue
to suffer from some ethnic
groups in the country.
Okolie, a professor of political
science also said that
going by the denials the Igbo
have suffered from the political
structures of Nigeria, no
Igbo man is genuinely interested
in contesting to become
President.
The don, who spoke in
Nsukka yesterday, called on
the Igbo to think home and
harness their ingenuities towards
achieving a secured
geo-political zone free from
were inaugurated, the issue
of non- remittance of stamp
duty by the CBN had been on
the front burner and that it
had been receiving requisite
attention at the Committee
level.
He disclosed that the Senate
Committee had obtained
records of other agencies of
the Federal Government investigating
or familiar with
the matter, saying, “It is much
more complicated than what
most Nigerians know. However,
what I can say for now is
that from what we have been
able to sieve out from documents
available to us as well
as the depositions we have
infiltrators.
He alleged that the umbrella,
which is supposed to be
protecting all the ethnic
groups in Nigeria and initiating
developmental agenda
at all fronts, appears to be
advancing insecurity
through its machineries and
thriving on deprivations.
He called on all geo-political
zones in the country to
replicate the South-West’s security
outfit, Operation
Amotekun.
He said, “I don’t see any
Igbo man emerging as President
in 2023 and I think Igbo
people are no longer interested
in that thing you call presidency.”
He advised the Igbo to
come home and build their
communities, pointing out
that the insecurity in the country
seemed to be sponsored.
taken, it is clear that so many
forces are confusing Nigerians
on this issue.
“With the evidence contained
in the plethora of documents
the CBN has supplied
to my Committee, it can easily
be deduced that the total
stamp duty unremitted can
not be over N20 trillion as
being alleged. For one, from
records available to us, the
total deposit in the Deposit
Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria
as of 2016 was only
about N18 trillion; so how
then can Stamp Duties alone
be N21 trillion as being
claimed by some petitioners?”