Banned 41 items: ICAN cautions CBN over policy somersault
By Niyi Jacobs
The newly appointed 52nd president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Deacon Titus Soetan has warned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to avoid policy summersault.
Soetan, during an exclusive interview with Business247 News Onlie at the weekend, he noted that the apex bank has reasons for its actions. “whether or not we agree with its reasons is a different thing entirely but that the CBN management should tread carefully’, he said.
Concerning the 41 items, he said Nigerian should have capacity to produce them in this country. “Why do we have to import toothpick when we have wood and everything here? Why do we keep creating employment for others and remained consumers. Why can’t we give local manufacturers some protection to produce some of these things? If we get it from the perspective of protecting infant industries, we will not see it as punishing anybody”, he cited.
According to him, “My only concern is that many times we have policies but we don’t sustain those policies. We should avoid policy summersault”.
Meanwhile, he said the newly introduced floating exchange rate regime is a step in the right direction. He pointed out that many people have even said it should have come a year ago.
He also noted that the president Buhari had insisted on non-devaluation of the naira because of its implication on Nigerians. “I believe that they have considered the fact that defending the naira with dollars that you don’t have, is an effort in futility. One thing I think it is going to do is that it will boost the earnings of both federal and state levels of government. This is because the money that was being given to states in the federation account allocation used to be at the exchange rate of about N197 to the dollar”, he added.
The newly ICAN president also stressed that if the exchange rate settles at N280 and above, the naira content will be more, adding that this will have the quantum of money higher than what they used to have, and so, many of them will be able to pay salaries.
However, he mentioned that many of the states are indebted overseas to where they borrowed money in dollar terms. He said when they want to pay back in dollar terms; they need bigger quantity of naira to pay. ‘So, it is a double-edged surd’, he noted.
He therefore said he believed that the apex bank policy will stop rent-seeking and round tripping. Having said that, I think it is a good policy from the CBN.
