what a. cashless policy... Does the CBN not know? At least once in the life of his administration, every CBN Governor wins an award for being the best Central Bank Governor in Africa. Don’t they know that banks borrow at 7% and lend at 30%; and a spread like that in an economy like this is, well, somehow? There is nothing you can steal from the Pension Fund that will do more damage than start-ups having to rely mainly on the National Bank of Family, Friends and Loan-Sharks. But if you ask, they will always blame it on the need to run generators 24/7, and the possibility that Nigeria could collapse before the expiration of a long-term loan. Then they go on to post even bigger end of year profits. How will it not happen when everything is traded with, even the Intervention Funds Government brings out and warehouses in the Bank of Industry to help critical sectors of our economy? All of a sudden, ‘suitable’ candidates cannot be found. It is not a mystery. There are BOI officials that first demand fatal cuts from what should be someone’s start-up capital before approval. And, sometimes, the beneficiary’s bank gets the money then finds reasons to retain it. Yes. These constant handshakes between government and banks; I wonder which of them would be left if there were no bills to ‘collect’ on behalf of government, no public funds to deposit, no Treasury Bills to invest in, no Intervention Funds to ‘manage’. Take a step further and remove the Dangotes, Ibetos and Otedolas (who can turn a profit in 18 months on imported necessities), and would Nigerian banks survive? Apparently, the rest of us are too ‘high risk; not at all ‘suitable’ for anything more useful than an ‘all-in-one’ Current Account. So, I too use the expression, ‘My bank’, but I don’t really have one. What it is, in truth, is a piggy bank; yes, even when it goes cashless. It might make us feel ‘Janded’, using ATM cards to buy agbalumo from the market, but then – to what end? Like many of the policies they keep rolling out, it assumes that reducing the operating costs of banks would automatically translate to what we ACTUALLY need – access to cheaper funds. But, if the past is any indicator of the future, deposit rates never rise and lending rates never fall. Importers of fuel and cement still get all the credit. Buying or building a house, even with a steady job, remains the stuff of legends. And borrowing on the strength of an idea, no matter how viable, is nearly impossible in this economy where there are more ideas in the ground than all of our natural resources put together. So, it makes me wonder – why do we have banks at all? You can ask that same question about many things around here. Why do we have electric poles but no electricity? Why do we have policemen but no security? Why do we have elections but no Democracy? Why do we have a country when no one is allowed to be a citizen in it? So, I’ve learned to tell myself different things. It doesn’t matter how many lanes we put in the road leading from the International Airport; if there is no running water, nobody will take us seriously. Even if we’re the biggest spenders in Harrod’s. And only wear designer labels. Even if we skype and blog and tweet and browse; and do occasional collabos with Jay Z. Even if we win the Caine, the Nobel and the Man Booker, and can pay Bill Clinton to come and give lectures on poverty eradication in Abuja. It still wouldn’t matter. Not when there are Primary School teachers that can’t read. And multi-billion- naira banks that don’t lend. So, stop forcing the foreign accent. Even if we all spoke like that, it still wouldn’t make us a developed country. PLEASE, can we focus on the things that actually would in the next round of reforms?
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:08:25 +0000
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