According to Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not consult her department before making the new monetary policy public.
According to PRIME 9JA ONLINE, Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, that the apex bank would begin issuing newly designed N200, N500, and N1000 notes on December 15, 2022.
In addition to reducing crimes like kidnapping and money laundering, Emefiele claimed that the measure was made to clean up extra naira notes that are now in circulation.
However, the Finance Minister distanced herself from the new monetary policy, alleging the CBN took unilateral action.
Ahmed said this during the 2023 budget defence session she had with the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, on Friday, October 28, 2022.
While responding to questions from the senators, the Minister warned the CBN of consequences that may arise from the policy.
Senator Bamidele Opeyemi (APC-Ekiti) had decried the spontaneous increase in the price of dollars to naira at the parallel market since the policy was announced by the CBN.
He expressed concern about the likely consequences of the policy on the nation’s economy, given the astronomical increase in forex.
Collaborating, Senator Adeola said the announcement of the policy had already caused the value of the Naira to a US dollar to rise from N740 to N788 due to the rush in exchange of stashed Naira Notes for foreign currencies, particularly the dollar.
He said, even though the policy may be a well-conceived one, the consequences of the policy were that price of the dollar to the naira was rising, adding that it might rise to N1,000 before December when the policy would take off.
In her response, Ahmed said she received information on the new policy just as other Nigerians, saying that her ministry, as a fiscal authority, was not part of the process leading to the formulation and announcement of the policy.
Ahmed's words: “We were not consulted, it was an announcement that we heard, it was said that part of the reason advocated was that it was one of the ways to mope up liquidity to manage inflation.
“But there are consequences that we are also looking at, what will the consequences be, there will be some benefits, but there will be some challenges.
“And I don’t know whether the monetary authorities have actually looked very closely as to where the consequences are and how they can be mitigated.
“So I still advise that you have that discussion with the monetary authorities.”