I have watched and patiently studied various policy made under the leadership of the CBN governor (Godwin Emeifele) and how it has impacted on the economy. I have observed policy inconsistency an indication of poor thought-through process followed and how clueless the governor is. The climax of it was fatuous statement he made on his first international appearance, asking the elected president then to divest government's equity interest in the JVs with IOCs and Independents to improve government liquidity. Perhaps, his lack of economics background is playing out here. CBN might be a regulator of banks but it goes beyond having a banker head the institution without a sound and robust knowledge of the workings, interplay and complexity of economic variables impacting the fiscal and monetary landscape.

During the electioneering campaign when politicians almost dollarised the economy, Emefiele, felt the best approach to avert continuous depreciation of naira was to ban payment of dollar to local vendor across industry, peg the amount of dollar to be spent in a year on foreign purchase by individuals to US$50,000 and adopt technical devaluation of naira. He failed to realize that due to peculiarity of some industry, local contractors/suppliers require dollar payment in order to remain in business as most of their equipment and materials are sourced internationally. This is the case in the oil and gas sector.

After several complains by players in the industry, Emefiele bowed to their pressure and reverse his decision vide CBN circulars in MAy and June by asking banks to exempt oil and gas company and oil servicing company from the policy. This really shows lack of in-depth analysis carried out before coming up with the policy.

Again, CBN seems yet to figure out how to prevent continuous fall of naira against dollar. It appears the only monetary tool, emefiele knows is devaluation. As I write, CBN has further devalued the naira as a further remediation strategy to mitigate foreign exchange risk. I do not support this. This action will further erode the purchasing power of Nigerians and make basic necessities of life out of their reach.

Whilst I do not have any personal vendetta against the man, I am of the opinion that we need a focused, intellectually sound, and competent person as head of the government's bank in order to design and develop efficient monetary tools and policy that will revamp our ailing economy.

cc:lailasticala

Maybe he needs time to put his policies into place.