While some reasons proffered are technically sound, and others have created misgivings, its timing, the oversight capability of the regulator and the short time for implementation, unless well managed, could backfire and hurt the precarious economy.
Already, the fallout has been murky. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, has disowned the redesign, saying the ministry was not consulted. She pointed to a second instant reaction to the announcement: the naira exchange rate leapt from N744 to $1 to N788 to $1 within 24 hours.
Besides, electronic channels are not always reliable in the country, the victims of poor public support infrastructure and weak systems management. They have made nonsense of the policy of stopping direct dollar sales to the bureaux de change, engage blatantly in round-tripping, deny customers foreign exchange remitted to them from abroad, deny legitimate businesses forex at approved rates, and assist money launderers to short-change the economy. The CBN appears helpless, content to impose ineffectual fines that do not dent the billions the culprits realise from their shenanigans.
There is also the issue of denying kidnappers cash. Really, it is the failure of the CBN and law enforcement authorities to effectively enforce money laundering laws and regulations that facilitate the huge sums outside the bank vaults. By failing to enforce cash withdrawal limits for individuals and corporate organisations, redesigning naira notes will not stop huge cash pay-outs to kidnappers. SBM intelligence estimates that kidnappers collected N653.7 million in the year to July 2022.
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