Economic Sabotage? CBN’s Mishandling of Excess Funds Sparks Outrage

Last week, the article “Is Poverty the Ultimate Reward for Pen­sion Contributors?” was republished. Due to poor administration, inflation, and unresolved structural problems, Nigeria’s pension reforms have not been able to shield seniors from poverty, as the article explains. For other essays by the late Sir Henry Boyo, as well as this series, see www.betternige­rianow.com.

This week’s republication reveals the long-standing and expensive practice of Nigeria’s government taking out double-digit interest loans from banks to finance its own operations, rewarding banks while halting progress. This dysfunctional system, which is plagued by bad policies, corruption, and misaligned priorities, is making inflation, unemployment, and poverty worse in spite of reforms and laws. Far from adhering to international best practices, the CBN’s policies have made Nige­ria’s economic problems worse while posing as monetary control.
When you read the following story, keep in mind that it was published in 2013, which is a glaring sign that Nigeria’s economic status has not improved despite the passage of time.

The fact that our Central Bank has been lending money at rates of 13 to 14% for so long, as recently acknowledged by Governor Lamido Sanusi, is a terrible moral hazard that could lead to economic sabotage. It is bad enough to ever have to repay debt.

Sanusi’s statement was confirmed by Alhaji Sulaiman Barau, Deputy Governor of the CBN, who stated that by June 2013, the three levels of government had nearly N2.384 trillion in zero-interest accounts held in commercial banks. Even though they did not contribute to the economy, Barau also disclosed that this liquidity prompted government borrowing and may have already increased bank profitability by roughly N300 billion. This means that despite our economic and infrastructure disaster, banks may have benefited from a bonanza of over N3000 billion for doing nothing over the past ten years! The apex bank merely kept the borrowed funds dormant (sterilized) in order to limit the excess cash supply in the economy, which is even worse given the high cost of service

In order to attract deposits, marketing techniques were developed that included aggressive aims for delicious young women dressed in miniature, known as relationship officers. This was made possible by the cheap money that could be generated from storing government cash. The wages and budgeted projects of MDAs were inevitably postponed on purpose in order to allow public officials to receive kickbacks from those banks that retained free government funding.

Therefore, Sanusi’s new directive requiring banks to maintain 50% of government deposits dormant as reserves is unmistakably an attempt to stop the government’s blatant hypocrisy of borrowing back its own funds at exorbitant charges!

Although the Debt Management Office and the CBN have already borrowed over N300 billion through Treasury bills and bonds and paid out over N200 billion to redeem such matured government debts to the same banks, there hasn’t been any improvement since the CBN’s directive! Additionally, the average cost of lending to the real sector has increased by more than 25%, as the naira exchange rate has ironically experienced significant declines!

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The recent addition of the accounts of MDAs like NNPC, Customs, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service to the 50% Cash Reserve Requirement will not accomplish anything significant and may even work against the country’s interests. Lowering the current cash surplus will only raise the cost of funds, which will lower the chances of economic growth while raising the unemployment rate and the impact of ravaging inflation on the poor.

The National Assembly and the Federal Executive seem unconcerned by this oppressive situation, which is inexplicable. What’s worse is that civil society, including highly intelligent Nigerians around the world, and the experts in the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee seem indifferent to the apparent fraud of the government borrowing back its own funds at absurdly high interest rates for more than 30 years! In fact, the term “fraud” is likely a weak euphemism for a more heinous crime of economic sabotage caused by such careless handling of public monies!

How, for instance, does one explain the CBN’s odd decision to keep the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for all deposits, including government deposits, at 1% in 2009 despite the fact that the banks held hundreds of billions of naira in government-free funds? The CBN then went on to mop up the resulting cash surplus by forcing the government to borrow heavily from the same banks at double-digit interest rates!

Remarkably, the CBN slyly attributes its own failure to reduce single-digit interest rates and inflation to excessive government expenditure! On the other hand, in any country where mass unemployment is a problem, increasing government spending is the internationally recommended course of action. This will raise demand, industrial activity, and job prospects.

In addition, the August 28 editorial in the Guardian newspaper notes that “Where then is the touted public sector dominance if public sector deposits in June 2013 comprised 20% of the N15 trillion bank deposit base?” The writer correctly concluded that “the bank has a maximum lending capacity of N96 trillion, with a further N12 trillion in private deposits that (with CRR at 12%) enable it!”

The fact remains that when CBN takes our dollar earnings and replaces them with monthly naira allocations, it creates an onerous burden of surplus cash in the system. It doesn’t matter if anyone agrees with this interpretation. In order to curb runaway inflation, the government borrows back its own money at exorbitant rates, which is why the CBN’s so-called “own dollar reserves” rise as naira liquidity does. A central bank’s claim to its own foreign reserves, which are separate from a country’s consolidated revenue pool, is uncommon!

While it is true that Sanusi inherited and continued this dishonest monetary policy management ploy, this repressive system still provides plenty of opportunity for unethical enrichment in the administration of public funds. The absurdity of the government borrowing back its own funds at exorbitant interest rates and fuel subsidy payments, for instance, cost our country more than N2 trillion a year without adding any value! Our terrible industrial and economic hardships will undoubtedly persist as long as we all live in ignorance, and CBN’s monetary policies will continue to make us poorer even as its own reserves increase.

Ironically, the same kind of economic sabotage can also be seen in the way that annual budgets purposefully understate projected revenue using extremely conservative crude export price/output benchmarks, necessitating significant government borrowing to cover the “ghost” deficits that are purposefully created! Our skilled economic administrators don’t care that surplus or excess public money that exist are kept in zero-interest accounts while the government continues to accumulate excessive debt at exorbitant interest rates to cover the imaginary deficits!