Minister of Works and Housing and former governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to review its naira swap policy in a way that will ameliorate its negative impact on Nigerians.
Fashola gave the advice in a live national television while reacting to the outcry over the widespread scarcity of the N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes since they were unveiled on November 23, 2022.
The CBN had said the old versions of those denominations will no longer be legal tenders after February 10, 2023 as the apex bank targets hoarders of illicit funds in the buildup to the general elections.
The minister, however, bemoaned the hardship brought on the people by the directive of the apex bank, saying it was imperative that public officeholders reviewed their policies when they had the opposite effect of what they had in mind at the conception of such policies.
“I empathise with those facing challenges but some of them are the result of policy and it is the responsibility of public servants, especially those responsible for those policies to look back and say, ‘Did we intend to cause this pain?’
“And if the policy is not working, perhaps you have to readjust and to also ask yourself whether you thought this through. As a public officer, before and now, I have had cause to reverse myself, when I saw that my policies were causing unintended results.
“So, I have no responsibility on those two areas and, therefore, I cannot speak to the details of the facts that are available to the policymakers but the important thing is that those policies are not yet delivering the results and are delivering a lot of inconvenience for [people],” he said.
