The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE), Muda Yusuf has said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) naira redesign policy has paralysed the economy.

Yusuf, a former Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI),

Speaking to The ICIR Muda Yusuf said that over N2 trillion had been retrieved from the economy since the commencement of the policy in December 15, 2022.

“Till date, the CBN had mopped up about N2 trillion cash from the economy thereby paralyzing the retail sector, crippling the informal economy, stifling the agricultural value chain, immobilizing the transportation sector, and disrupting the payment system in the economy,” Yusuf said.Information Guide Nigeria

The former Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) noted that the policy has made businesses unable to access cash to run their operations smoothly.

He said: “It is a flagrant violation of the rights of citizens for the CBN to withhold the cash of citizens under the guise of currency redesign.NYSC Portal

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“The CBN cannot request the citizens to bring their cash for a swap, only to deprive them access to it. A swap presupposes that whatever old notes was received by the banks must be replaced with new ones instantly.

“The entire exercise was a needless disruption of economic growth activities, especially among the most vulnerable segments of the economy,”

Yusuf revealed that the apex bank claimed that the economy had too much cash outside the banking system had no basis in economic theory, neither can it be supported by empirical evidence.

“As at December 2022, the total money supply was N52 trillion and cash component of money supply was N2.6 trillion, which was just five per cent . Similarly, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was N202 trillion, which gives a cash-to- GDP ratio of 1.3 per cent.

“These ratios are some of the lowest around the world, which shows that the Nigerian economy is not really a cash-dominant economy,” he added.JAMB Result

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