iLegendd:
CBN: New Naira Note, Gumi, and the Solution to Stop Paying Ransom

After reading what Gumi said about the redesign of Naira, only a fool will not discern he is part of the business and has millions, if not billions of Naira stashed somewhere in cash.

Here is what he said and I quote, "What we need is a free market-driven economy with minimal cash flow control. As for the question of starving kidnappers of Naira, it goes without saying that they will resort to Dollars and other hard currencies which will further put more pressure on it making the rotten situation bad-der.

“kidnapping can only be stopped by robust policing, social justice for all, and equitable wealth distribution."

Pay attention to his first line and his last line and see how they contradict each other.

First line: What we need is a free market-driven economy with minimal cash flow control.

Second line: Kidnapping can only be stopped by robust policing, social justice for all, and equitable wealth distribution.

In the first line, he said we need a minimal cash flow control — meaning: the government should allow people have access and control to their money in cash.

In his second line, he said kidnapping can only stop with robust policing.

What the government is trying to do is actually "robust policing" but he doesn't want it.

Why will you say you want robust policing and at the same time reject it by saying you want the government to have minimal control? Isn't that contradictory? Robust comes with absolute control, not minimal.

With robust policing, as the government is about to do — which looks like dictatorship, but good for the economy, comes with equitable wealth distribution.

How? When you don't have access to all your money in cash no matter who you are, but in digital form, that is good policing because the government will know where each account receives money from and where they send money to.

With this, the government can now question people with excess money digitally to know their source and if they can't prove it, the money belongs to the people, the government, and will be used to develop the country or redistributed. A journey of a mile starts with a step. They started with BVN, now this. Digital is the way to robust policing.

I know what you're thinking, but calm down. Don't worry, we'll later discuss old or blind people who can't use digital transaction.

I have lived in Singapore for years and never touched money — everything was done electronically.

So, having control of your money digitally is fine, but in cash, it's not and it affects the security of the nation when every Tom, Dick, and Harry has access to cash.

It makes the government lose control of where the cash is and encourages greed or crime.

Why? The moment kidnappers or criminals know you can withdraw any amount, they'll ask for any amount and you must pay or the person will be killed.

That's the dark side of having control and access to all your money in cash. That access should be restricted by the government if they truly want to curb crime.

When the criminals know, by law, the victims don't have access to any amount in cash, but ONLY digitally, no matter what, they'll end up asking for the ransom digitally via bank transfer or crypto.

The good thing is, bank transfer can be tracked and so is a crypto addresses. Some people think a crypto address can't be tracked — no, it can, the moment the government gets involved and contacts the exchange that owns the address.

Even if the criminals receive the ransom via a third party to another third party and more third parties in-between, then finally to the criminals' accounts, the government will still track the final destination or all the accounts the money was distributed to. Thanks to "know your customer" (KYC).

SOLUTION TO FINANCIAL CRIME

Let's assume there is a new law and each Nigerian is only allowed to withdraw 10,000 Naira in cash per month no matter how many accounts  he or she has. (BVN will help in making this to work).

In a year, each Nigerian is only allowed to withdraw 120,000 Naira. In 10 years, he/she is only allowed access to 1.2 million Naira in cash.

Also, possessing Dollar or any currency, apart from Naira, in cash should be made illegal with a jail term except you're traveling out of the country and all documents, visa, flight ticket, etc. are ready to show the bank before they can give you Dollar, but not more than $2,000 per trip — which is 1.5 million Naira and you're only allowed 5 of it for a year.

That is a total of 7.5 million per year or $10,000 for those genuinely traveling. This one is only for people travelling abroad for something important, not for leisure.

Unfortunately, currency transaction is mostly handled by Northerners. They have all their alhajis doing BDC and exchanging money left and right.

Trying to put a stop to this business will look as if the government is attacking the North and as you know, majority of people in government are Northerners and a lot of them benefit from this loophole, hence they can't close it.

As you know, a politician once said attacking Boko Haram is attacking the North. We are all afraid of attacking the North for the benefit of the entire country and this is why the country is stagnant and riddled with crime.

I don't condone attacking the North — we are all humans, but if stopping oil bunkering and millitancy in the South will benefit or has benefited Nigeria as a whole, then stopping Boko Haram or BDC, etc. will also benefit Nigeria and the economy as a whole. Don't you think so?

So, in summary, Gumi knows the government is doing the right thing, but he doesn't want it because his business will be ruined and the people he negotiates for will be tracked and he will be exposed during their confessions that he is a part of the ring or even the ringleader.

Nobody wants to be tracked — including myself, but if we want a good country with no or less crime, equity and justice like Singapore, we must all be trackable in our financial dealings.

Only those who know their ways are not legit hate to be tracked by the government. We all love freedom, but evil men love freedom more and they'll fight with their lives, money, blood, gang, voodoo, etc. to make sure no one tampers with their freedom even if it's for the betterment of the nation. They don't care and they don't want it.

If the government implements this, it's going to hurt and affect criminals, kidnappers, fraudsters, politicians, money launderers, and finally old or blind people who don't use electronic devices.

On the list above, only old people or old market men/women or blind people are the important ones.

The rest are criminals who wouldn't want this new process to work for their selfish interest.

So, let's find a solution for the important people, not the criminals who want a free market-driven economy with minimal cash flow control by the government.

SOLUTION FOR THE IMPORTANT ONES

Any market man or woman who controls more than 100k per day is not a small business person.

With this amount of money, he or she must be literate, at least, even without knowing how to operate a computer or phone or have children who are. One of the children or an employee will handle the financial aspect digitally.

What if this child or employee runs with his or her money? Don't worry, a good robust policing is in place — the person will be caught easily because he can't withdraw more than 10k per month. Even if he uses it to shop online or transfer to different accounts, he can easily be arrested and all the accounts involved tracked.

Talking about old blind people, the case is easy. These people don't really need millions in their lives. They just want to eat food and stay alive until God calls them to rest. Their children or grandchildren or family members with eyes handle 90% of things for them.

What of the young, but blind ones? These ones use braille or new technologies that voice out things. Also, they have family members who will handle 50% or more of their transactions.

What about people in interior villages without phones or electricity? These people are mostly farmers. They have all they need to eat. Cassava, garri, ewa, fresh fish, bushmeat, leaf, etc. These people even live the best and happy lives with no or less cash.

I grew up in the village and trust me, farming was fun. We hardly buy things and 90% of what we eat were from our farms.

When anyone from the village wants to go digital, we go to the city to open an account, get an ATM card and voilà, we can swipe now.

Also, there are schools and even computers in villages too and students in the village are smart as well, at least, in Rivers state, they are.

So, this is the best opportunity to reduce financial crime. This does not mean crime will disappear immediately, but it means it will drastically reduce and no kidnapper can have access to more than 1 million Naira in cash because the victim and his relatives can't have access to such in a month.

Each person is just 10k cash per month. It will take 100 family members to even raise 1 million Naira in cash. It's not everyone that has up to 100 family members. So, this will leave kidnappers with no option than to accept bank transfer with another victim's account and from that victim's account to their personal account. This, my friend, is trackable.

No access to much Naira in cash and no access to Dollar in cash is the way forward to eliminating or reducing kidnapping. When you know you can be easily tracked, you'll mostly desist from crime.

It's sad to realize that most of my fellow countrymen TRULY love crime and this is why they'll ALL kick against this with irritable reasons that may seem to make sense to them, but doesn't make sense to the growth of the nation.

They'll cite hardship, Naira crashing, poverty, people suffering in rural areas, lack of real cash will cause this and that, etc.

These people love crime and benefit from it, so they'll never want their evil to be stopped with a good and robust policy.

Sammy07:
Someone should summarize

iLegendd:
Laziness is when you can't spend some minutes to read something. If it's money (millions) you'll spend hours to count it to avoid being cheated.

BeardedMeat:
Op, are you for real with the 10k per month thing or just saying?
Otherwise, nearly every shop will need to digitalize before they can trade.

iLegendd:
Laziness is when you can't spend some minutes reading something. If it's money (millions) you'll spend hours counting it to avoid being cheated.

LadyExcellency:


If not why not? Even illiterates don't make mistakes when counting money.

iLegendd:
Without obstacles, there is no solutions. Necessity is not only the mother of invention, but progress and growth. No pain, no growth.

BeardedMeat:
Ordinary digital voting, some sections of the country are protesting talkless digital trading.

BeardedMeat:
Ordinary digital voting, some sections of the country are protesting talkless digital trading.

iLegendd:
...

BigIyanga:

Novice advice.. just average intl airline ticket price is $2k.. and foreign airlines dont accept Naira. How are Nigerians going to pay for goods and services abroad. This is your phone you’re using now was bought in $$…

iLegendd:
You have five fingers per hand. If one will make you not to go to Heaven or become great in life, cut it off.

iLegendd:
Novice reply. Pay your airline with your Dollar card.

There are local and international Dollar cards with good limit. If the money is in Naira convert it to Dollar with your app (even if it's black market rate) and pay in Dollar. You're probably not savvy in that regard.

Most things are done with your phone. You don't need the to carry real cash for your online payments.

I convert my Naira to any currency I want. The only cash you need is the first cash you'll spend when you arrive the new country to avoid inconveniences.

Some of you Nigerians are too dull for my liking and this is why I ignore replying most of you.

BigIyanga:

How do you fund your dollar card? Banks only allow $20-$100/month. You’re really quite naive and bereft of how global economy works.
Typical and uninformed Naija lol. 70% of what you use in Naija are charged in dollars at the place of procurement/production.
You’re the dullest one here. Most international transactions dont accept credit cards because volume, fraud and chargeback. You gonna need your Google on your side for consultation. This convo is above your intellectual grade and social media gossip league

iLegendd:


Na wa o. I can't believe dumb people like you still exist. Exchanging words with you is making me feel bad.

It's just like insulting myself. I have a lot of info about currency. With my experiences in life, I'm not even supposed to engage someone as dumb as you. E go affect my brain.

For fun, let me educate and enlighten you without revealing too much info.

I started booking my own flight and travelling at age 17/18. This was when I started playing with different currencies.

Also, when I was sending your fellow Nairalanders 57k to 100k each for arbitrage last year, where were you? Some of these Nairalanders ran with my money till this day.

This means some of you Nairalanders are criminals and don't deserve help or some secret info. I would've revealed some info that'll change your life, but I won't.

If you're from the oil-rich community I'm from and you're smart, the oil companies there will train you in school in any country you want and everything paid for. Be it secondary, BSc. Masters, or PhD.

My best friend, the only male friend I have from childhood, chatted me up about his US admission for his PhD on the 23rd of this month.

One of the oil companies is paying for everything. Me and this guy do arbitrage together and we discovered things you can never see online.

This means I know more about currency than your lineage will ever know. Being a major in Network Computing and Ethical Hacking, you should know better that we don't operate in the same frequency or have the same IQ or experiences.

Having more than 30 ATMs and more than 50 bank accounts should tell you something about me and how serious I take this business or any business I'm into.

As we were told as kids, no be every time person suppose brag. At times, it's good to talk less and let them assume they know better than you. I would've just replied you with "Okay, you won," but decided to reveal a little.

Below is a snippet of the chat for your curious mind. We pay for anything with Naira and can convert any amount to Dollar or any currency and still make profit in it.

You're just a little boy and I'll never reveal much to you neither will I reply you ever again. Enjoy the screenshots below because I'll delete them soon.

The purpose of the screenshot is to let you know you can pay with Naira for anything as long as you know your way. You don't need cash. I book my flight with phone ever since I was a teenager. I don't talk much, but since I write a full book in a day, typing or writing is too easy for me, hence my epistle.

You're just too dumb. I don't know why I invested so much energy in replying you — I guess I'm bored today. It will never happen again.

Chat to be deleted soon.

Abba114:
bro u lie too much, its boring now pls stop

iLegendd:


Na wa o. I can't believe dumb people like you still exist. Exchanging words with you is making me feel bad.

It's just like insulting myself. I have a lot of info about currency. With my experiences in life, I'm not even supposed to engage someone as dumb as you. E go affect my brain.

For fun, let me educate and enlighten you without revealing too much info.

I started booking my own flight and travelling at age 17/18. This was when I started playing with different currencies.

Also, when I was sending your fellow Nairalanders 57k to 100k each for arbitrage last year, where were you? Some of these Nairalanders ran with my money till this day.

This means some of you Nairalanders are criminals and don't deserve help or some secret info. I would've revealed some info that'll change your life, but I won't.

If you're from the oil-rich community I'm from and you're smart, the oil companies there will train you in school in any country you want and everything paid for. Be it secondary, BSc. Masters, or PhD.

My best friend, the only male friend I have from childhood, chatted me up about his US admission for his PhD on the 23rd of this month.

One of the oil companies is paying for everything. Me and this guy do arbitrage together and we discovered things you can never see online.

This means I know more about currency than your lineage will ever know. Being a major in Network Computing and Ethical Hacking, you should know better that we don't operate in the same frequency or have the same IQ or experiences.

Having more than 30 ATMs and more than 50 bank accounts should tell you something about me and how serious I take this business or any business I'm into.

As we were told as kids, no be every time person suppose brag. At times, it's good to talk less and let them assume they know better than you. I would've just replied you with "Okay, you won," but decided to reveal a little.

Below is a snippet of the chat for your curious mind. We pay for anything with Naira and can convert any amount to Dollar or any currency and still make profit in it.

You're just a little boy and I'll never reveal much to you neither will I reply you ever again. Enjoy the screenshots below because I'll delete them soon.

The purpose of the screenshot is to let you know you can pay with Naira for anything as long as you know your way. You don't need cash. I book my flight with phone ever since I was a teenager. I don't talk much, but since I write a full book in a day, typing or writing is too easy for me, hence my epistle.

You're just too dumb. I don't know why I invested so much energy in replying you — I guess I'm bored today. It will never happen again.

Chat to be deleted soon.

BeardedMeat:
Op, are you for real with the 10k per month thing or just saying?
Otherwise, nearly every shop will need to digitalize before they can trade.

Day169:
I wonder how the Sheikh suddenly became an economic luminary.. (Islamic political economics, I suppose ).
Like the poster posited, he appears to have some skeletons (literally and figuratively) in his cupboard.