Emefiele: robbing Peter to pay Paul

The CBN, they say, seems to abandon its regulatory responsibilities and is taking sides with financial mobsters to exploit Nigerians, even as it says the decision is aimed at curbing frivolous withdrawals and abuse of the ATM.The new policy replaces the December 2012 one in which the CBN resolved with the Bankers Committee to transfer […]

The CBN, they say, seems to abandon its regulatory responsibilities and is taking sides with financial mobsters to exploit Nigerians, even as it says the decision is aimed at curbing frivolous withdrawals and abuse of the ATM.
The new policy replaces the December 2012 one in which the CBN resolved with the Bankers Committee to transfer the payment of N100 fee on remote-on-us ATM withdrawal transactions to issuing banks. That policy had been rewarding for serious banks that kept their ATMs in use, round the clock, the same way it had hurt idle banks and lazy bankers. But the CBN is now crying more than the bereaved. It said the losses from free ATM uses had cost the banks a fortune. The re-introduction of the ATM cash withdrawal transaction fee, according to the apex bank, is to cover the cost of switches and ATM monitoring among others.
So where does that leave the CBN governor and who benefits from his policies? Banks had already complied with the directive and were still smiling to their vaults. There is not a single record of disapproval from them anywhere. Besides, the inter-house competition among banks which the policy had generated makes banking healthier than ever, at least for the customer.
We may be a big country but we are a poor people. And with seventy percent of Nigerians living below the poverty line, of less than a dollar a day, in World Bank figures, it would be right for Nigerians to resist losing their pennies to insincere policies. One would therefore understand why listening to their reactions to the levy, the high heavens were falling on the roofs. For the rich ones who hit the daily withdrawal limit just as frequently, the tariff may well stay. But to those who count their pennies, it is an economic setback and banks should be the last to add to their misery. The poor people of this country are going through hard times and they don’t deserve this unfair treatment. After eking out the little there is, the banks shouldn’t be the ones turning around to snatch everything.
Anybody holding an ATM card could, once upon a time, virtually slap it on any money-spinning machine and walk away. But the people’s bankers are gone. Since the assumption of office of the incumbent CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, CBN policies have only hurt the poor. Instead of capitalizing on the principles of economies of scale to maximize their profits Emefiele is helping commercial banks to the rip the poor off even though, they do not need the poor man’s pennies to survive. Banks are not supposed to penny-pinch.
>> But it is not the first time Emefiele’s CBN is robbing Peter to pay Paul. On June 23 he raised the minimum capital requirement for Bureau De Change (BDC) operators from N10million to N35 million and also raised the mandatory caution fee from 10,000 dollars to N35million. The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria said the exercise had destabilized many businesses as most operators would not want their licenses revoked after the July 31 deadline so they resorted to mergers or outright acquisition of fresh licenses.
>> There was a national outcry that the regulation would put a lot of people out of business, the consequence of which is known to society. Although a section of the country had seen the measure as directed at its people, the corporate image of the CBN in the eyes of most citizens had plummeted and brought CBN to infamy.
>> This forces a comparison between Godwin Emefiele and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi now his Royal Highness. Sanusi’s tenure as CBN Governor was eventful and pro-people. He even attacked the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who nominated him when he reduced the seven-point agenda to “a wasteful exercise” and suggested that a good agenda should not bear more than two points.
 Sanusi also empanelled a special joint committee of the CBN and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to conduct a special examination of 24 banks in the country and swore that some of the banks’ chief executives would go to jail after the examination. On August 14, 2009, the CBN announced results of the stress test of 10 banks and determined that five of them were insolvent. Their CEOs were fired. Many of those banks had granted non-performing loans to family, friends and cronies and the masses were losing their deposits piece-meal. The residue of the panel is what is now known as AMCON.
It is absurd therefore that instead of further banking reforms, we now have a CBN that is only about returns for the commercial banks it is supposed to regulate. We are taught at beginners’ level that all economic reporting must revolve around the little money that goes into or out of the ordinary man’s pockets. In developed economies it defines good and bad banks and successful and unsuccessful governments. Just last week, Sweden’s Social Democratic Party announced that it would increase child support allowances if it is returned to government, in the coming elections. It is a vote-catcher particularly among young mothers and families in general.
 It is obvious that the policies of the CBN under Emefiele are such a luxury that only the rich and famous can afford. That makes the apex bank the Central Bank of the Famous, CBF. And on a personal level it also puts Emefiele two inches short of SLS.