Treasury Single Account,Applesauce

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Professor Charles Soludo has shown over the years that he is never scared to air his views. He has spoken again, now faulting the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the Federal Government and the policy regime of foreign exchange restrictions of the CBN.

Soludo spoke on Thursday as a guest lecturer at the third anniversary lecture of online magazine, Realnewsmagazine.net in Lagos. He stated that while the TSA could restore sanity and transparency into Nigeria’s financial system, the initiative could be better deployed. He stressed that “concentrating the cash at the CBN when the economy needs reviving is not sound economics.”

Speaking on the topic: ‘Can the New Buharinomics Save Nigeria?’ the former CBN boss also faulted the policy regime of foreign exchange restrictions being implemented by the CBN including the ban on 41 items on foreign exchange access and the debate on whether to further devaluate the naira or not, arguing that such policies will actually cause the economy to implode, worsen unemployment and increasing poverty level.

“For the better part of this year, the external shocks to the economy have been complicated or accentuated by a gamut of the “tried and failed” command and control policy regime: de facto fixed exchange rate, largely fixed CBN monetary policy rate, crude capital controls, veiled form of import bans through a long list of ‘ineligible for foreign exchange’, de facto scrapping of domiciliary account established by law, etc. At first, I thought this was the usual kneejerk response of policymakers to a ‘sudden’ shock. We tried a milder variant of this for a few months during the 2008/2009 unexpected/unprecedented global crisis (with global liquidity squeeze and massive capital flight) but even then, it was communicated as a ‘short-term crisis response’ and it was quickly dismantled. We now know what works and what doesn’t even at a time of crisis.

Read more: http://www.theinfostride.com/2015/11/soludo-condemns-treasury-single-account-says-it-is-inconsistent-with-the-objectives-of-creating-jobs-reducing-poverty/#ixzz4LkF6bPhQ