The appointment of Olayemi Cardoso as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) can be seen as a move by the Federal Government to translate her desire for efficient economic management of the country’s resources by allowing competent Nigerian technocrats to lead the way to a prosperous nation. Cardoso’s explanations during his screening at the National Assembly, reflected the confluence between knowledge economy and financial reengineering; the kind of conspiracies which are believed to be the possible ideas that must be harnessed for the rebuilding of a battered CBN, and the Nigerian economy in extension. In view of all his good records and the kind words that have been said by politicians, businessmen and all the hailers within the Nigerian circle, Cardoso would look more focused doing his job if he is religiously guided by the agenda which have been tailored looking at the state of the Nigerian economy and the current contents of the CBN.

The drive of shoring up the state of the Foreign Exchange Market (FOREX) is a most worrisome concern to many, but at the same time, it is obvious that the road to achieving this does not operate by applying all the neo-classic theories of money. The Governor must build a compassionate and a supportive community so that there will be synergy in driving all the forces that can propel a role reversal along the entire economic line because every activity in the country contributed to the demise of the Naira. He must take a critical look at the entire monetary policy framework and find a missing link with what is in operation presently. He must solve the theory of money, which must take him into finding the role of a proper fiscal policy influence or lack of it. He must find the reality of single forex policy and multiple forex policy in an economy that does not generate a quarter of her needed forex consumption as a mono-economy. There is no doubt that Nigeria has been operating what has been tagged a “Foreign Exchange Economy” and he must take a decisive action if the current policy framework can continue or not after about 24 years.

He must create opportunities for a cross-flow of income among Nigerian operators and their foreign investors whose activities in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) logistics are central to his much awaited $8 trillion projection. To achieve this, he must begin to ramp up foreign direct investment programmes and ideas that could be accommodated by the various structural gaps in our system, even as he must quickly begin to address them as assurance for consistency in business relationship.

Whenever Nigerians talk about FDI, they think that its constituent factors reside only within the purview of the CBN. The CBN governor must not close his eyes on the numerous intervening issues that affect the delivery of a consistent monetary policy flow, which can be referred so many times as interventions. There will not be a free-flow of monetary policy objectives if unnecessary cracks persist along the line of forex flow. The CBN must avoid the orchestration by political pundits who would want him to define an entirely new monetary policy that does not consider the contents of the status quo ante.

The new CBN Governor must quickly tell Nigerians the position of the controversial currency redesign policy as a matter of urgency based on the fact that it has been seen as a major albatross in the country’s financial intermediation process, where consumers now have the “Old currency” and “New currency” or what many refer to as “Emefiele” and “Old Naira” being used as legal tenders, with the legality of one of it already smeared in a political subterfuge, in Africa’s biggest economy. Nigerians have no quarrel with the currencies but they obviously cannot function in a situation where the same currency value could be found in two different colours. Apart from taking a decision on their applications as legal tenders, Nigerians must be made to understand the real stories behind its emergence. The onus must be on the new governor to set the record of the emergence of the new currency straight, indicating adequate reasons from the bank’s books.

With an incongruous statement from the World Bank on the state of Nigeria’s e-Naira considered to be a problem in the country’s financial stability, the governor must come out with the state of the e-wallet which was launched with pomp and pageantry so that the millions of Nigerians who have invested in it must not panic or make moves that will cause the country some major financial losses which will add to her GDP degradation. This will at the same time inform the call for an insight into the entire Financial Inclusion Policy that has created new monies and new phony financial issues across the country. Many financial application (APPs) have evolved in the country as a way of deepening financial integration, most of which have become serious problems to users, and some of which remain largely not discussed. This calls for the streamlining of the financial inclusion features in the system.

The governor must try to resolve the issues around the debt management records so that Nigerians will know who to listen to in terms of the country’s debt position. Originally Debt Management was a department under CBN. When it became a stand-alone agency or commission of government, its activities were understandable. Now that it has been returned to the Ministry of Finance, the CBN still functions as if it is in-charge of its activities. What really is the position? This should be fully clarified.

One major issue that affects almost all Nigerians is the inflationary trend and the rates in the economy. Like forex, the level of volatility involved in the management of the rates is a function of the level of productivity in the system, which the CBN does not functionally control. But indications are rife that most of the factors for these volatilities are interwoven and the apex bank must find a way to monitor and control the more critical areas of the volatility since it will take responsibility of any inaction. As inflation is directly tied to the level of productivity, it is important that the CBN must begin to influence the level of lending in the banks, monitor the ability for institutions to generate employment, have its eyes into the tax system and develop policies that can be used with all institutions where financial charges and rewards are generated. As a matter of fact, numerous rates generated and imposed by numerous institutions have been identified as major enablers for very high inflationary trend, especially for a country that has no efficient consumer protection institution or board.

It must be noted that the biggest creators of very high inflationary trend are irregular pricing and poor cost determination system. This is why institutions place school fees, hospital bills, food bills, various services tariffs and other avoidable rates. All told, we believe that if the CBN governor can resist some notable external pressures that may have triggered the ongoing investigations into the acts of his predecessor, the CBN will be respected by the people of Nigeria.

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