A very commendable move, and thanks to the national leadership of the nation: “Bola Tinubu has instructed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend the implementation of a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on electronic transactions following widespread criticism from various groups, including SERAP, BudgIT, and 136 concerned Nigerians, who filed a lawsuit against the CBN.” This is how it is done, if the government is for the people. I commend the government for this.
This policy has no benefit to the Nigerian people. It would cause massive welfare loss by increasing the cost of production, reducing Nigeria’s competitiveness, even as it scales pains to families and companies.
It is so bad that the senators who wrote the law are even against the implementation because no one can make sense of it: “Senator Ali Ndume also opposed the levy, citing concerns over increased tax burden without income increment.”
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Again, I challenge the Central Bank of Nigeria to return to publishing Working Papers so that our professors of Economics, Banking & Finance, etc, can test their models and make suggestions. We must move from our current circular-model which began in 2016 to a more nuanced rigorous policy formulation where our central bankers postulate via papers, and we the people read, digest, and know where they’re going.
As a young banker, I enjoyed reading CBN Working Papers; I continue to beg the apex bank to return to that heritage. If this cybersecurity levy had gone through a working paper review, someone would have seen the apparent lack of welfare gain, and pushed for minor changes. But with a circular-model we do these days, we’re only practicing in a command and control center, with minimal rigour before policies are pushed. Check well, you are reversing many things recently.
How do you run this Working Paper unit? Rotate across the Economics department in Nigeria’s leading universities, and ask our professors to send you their briefs on policy related issues. You do not need to pay anyone; they’re already paid and this is part of their work as teachers.
Nonetheless, you need to hire some PhDs in Economics, Banking & Banking, etc to lead that desk in the central bank, as you need more advanced knowledge systems to make sense of what the professors are proposing. CBN: try this model, and avoid some of the recent own-goals of policy somersault.
As that happens, I commend the government for this call.
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How appropriate is it to make unforced error, and after all the blowback and causing people stress, you say you have reversed, and then you are commended? How many days did we just lose on something that should never have formed part of our daily national conversations? We are not fair to our compatriots if we keep stressing them this way, this is no leadership. We moved from point 0 to -10 and then returned to 0. How exactly is this progress? Pure baloney.
How did lawmakers read and pass such a law in the first place? Political leadership positions are held on trust. This mindset that some representatives of the people are doing the latter some favours needs to be reexamined, so that each person will know who’s responsible for what.
Politicians are delegitimizing government whenever they engage in this sort of irresponsible act, and there ought to be serious consequences, it cannot just pass with reversal or someone yammering sorry every now and then. When you stress the people unnecessarily, you have to pay dearly for it. Instead of telling us sorry, just make effort not to offend us in the first place, that is what responsible people do.
No thanks for engaging in bad behaviour.