By Oludayo Tade
About two weeks ago, a video of semi-nude, light-skinned woman went viral on the internet. She was inside her bank to access her money but could not achieve her goal. After efforts to achieve her aim fell on deaf ears, there was nothing more to hide – she stripped herself. She lamented her inability to withdraw her money which has not allowed her children to go to school for two days. Left with bra and pant, this woman contested and angrily demanded that her account be closed and her deposit released to her.
Few days later, the video of a man totally naked inside another bank went viral. Blended with messages of hopelessness and the futility of efforts to access his savings to save his wife and children from dying from ill-health and of hunger, the nude-male protester proclaimed that he was frustrated to go unclothed after he had appealed to top executives of that bank without result. He wanted his ¦ 520,000 naira which he saved with the bank released to him. He said “give me my money let me go. You frustrated me. You frustrated me. Give me my money. My wife is in the hospital…about to die. There is nothing again”.
Semi-nude or total nude protests are not exclusive to Nigeria. It has been reported in Zimbabwe, Australia, South Africa, London and the United States of America. Where getting justice in law courts becomes difficult, people are likely to resort to protest to show displeasure and their unpleasant experiences on their inability to move, purchase goods and withdraw money. This is happening because the Central Bank of Nigeria with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari decided to redesign three denominations of ¦ 200, ¦ 500 and ¦ 1000. The redesigned naira have now become scarce commodity, trading more in black market by becoming the most important currency in present-day Nigeria.
Protesting nude in the banking hall positions the human body as symbolic object of negotiation which can be used in different places of power and influence for contestations. By protesting nude, these depositors did not only show they have nothing again to hide, they also show how government policies affect the downtrodden who save little for trading and survival. It further shows the weaponization of the body for the extraction of action, sympathy and ultimately halt an unpleasant event. Despite the fact that people in the banking halls were more interested in recording, observing and sharing their nude videos than covering them, the nude protesters challenged institutional authorities and imposed themselves on spaces they would not have dared. They represent millions of Nigerians who were tricked to deposit their money into the formal banking system before they were literally stripped, disempowered and rendered beggars to access their own monies.
Fuel is scarce and expensive. Filling stations are demanding cash but CBN wants us to go CASH-less without sufficient awareness and infrastructure to support such transition.
The civil disobedience and protests which started last week, sadly with destruction of properties and loss of lives are pointers to the strains which the policy is causing the ordinary man. What digital infrastructure has the CBN put in place for smooth transition to digital payment systems? How do we strengthen security to check frauds and cybercrimes? How will people who cannot withdraw the new legal tender eat, transport themselves and perform other mandatory roles in their lives?
Nigeria needs to learn how Kenya and countries in the global north are achieving this feat. India started this policy around 2016-2017 which they called demonetization with the almost similar objectives as Nigeria. Today, is experiencing remonetization with cash everywhere. How do we ensure that those in hospitals and need care are not allowed to die because of loopholes in a currency redesign policy? Most Nigerians are struggling to deal with mental health issues that come with this financial disruption. They are literally ‘naked’ and left vulnerable to black market operators. The policy implementation strategy needs urgent review. We must learn to adopt measures that make life easy for our citizens when implementing good policies.
The Naira redesign policy of the President Buhari government implemented by the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele failed to appreciate the unintended consequences that come with the policy by not anticipating the massive informal economy that thrives on cash. The primacy of cash for economic, social and cultural uses in Nigeria needs to be appreciated in making interventions.
In an international study with my colleague, the Acting Head of Marketing and Consumer Studies, University of Ibadan, Oluwatosin Adeniyi, we found that uptake of digital naira in Nigeria was low because it failed to add anything new to the functions already served by existing payment systems. Indeed, we found that fear of fraud in digital transaction, large informal economy based on cash, and poor digital infrastructure to support transition affects the uptake of digital naira and affects the drive for financial inclusion.
Stories from those who have opted to use transfer or Point of Sales (POS) payment options are not different. Its either the bank Apps are not working, or the transfer is hanging or not delivering. When you transfer, you have to wait for minutes for confirmation. God help you if your confirmation comes early but our research documented some people had to wait for more than three hours! Furthermore, our study found that while some are receptive to accept transfers, poor infrastructure challenge, fake alerts, and delayed crediting of account frustrated such acceptance. Traditional practices and informal economy are still heavily cash-based despite the fact that the young educated persons prefer transfers to old people who associate more with cash. When policy is poorly-conceived and badly executed such as this, it creates extortion opportunities to the extent that the Nigerian naira is now operating in the black market!
Every policy must first understand what problem exists before designing intervention. In the case of Nigeria, we have the cash-dependent, less cash-dependent and digital users within the financial space. Product and policy design must factor in these end-users. We cannot have one size fits all policy if our aim is indeed to include all and not exclude people. Poor understanding or appreciation of the variety of financial product users (including the financial literacy level and rural unbanked populace) is what is driving the present crisis occasioned by the naira redesign policy. You cannot aim to drive financial inclusion by fraudulently bringing people in and denying them access to their money. What the CBN is doing is the tyranny of intermediary control and denial, a strategy used to lure people to deposit old naira into banks with the intention of not giving them access to their money. It may also pass for cash seizure, cash-arrest, cash-kidnapping or cash abduction simply because the owners now have to pay ‘ransom’ to be able to access a fraction of their money, usually at a loss!. The ongoing crisis should teach the CBN that they underestimated the importance of cash in the financial ecosystem of Nigeria and failed to prepare for this backlash.
•Dr Tade, a sociologist wrote via dotad2003@yahoo.com