Let us condemn the evidential lack of team spirit which made it possible that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) can plan a huge policy playbook to redesign the Naira with no involvement from the Ministry of Finance. I have read how many citizens have supported the indefensible, stating that the  CBN does not have any obligation to discuss anything with the finance ministry.

Good People, I think that thesis is WRONG. Yes, irrespective of their portfolios, that the CBN can go ahead with its plan, even after getting an approval from the President, and not telling the nation’s finance minister,  is bad, and must be condemned. CBN can do what it wants but it has an obligation to inform other partner MDAS (ministries, departments and agencies) so that they are prepared and contribute to the success of the policy implementation and execution.

You cannot separate monetary policies and banking regulations from national financial policies and implementation. The main jobs of a central bank are to keep a country’s currency stable (keep inflation low) and boost employment (manage interest rates). It cannot do those things effectively in isolation without the finance ministry which handles the national budget.

Do not tell me that a central bank governor is appointed to win an economic battle without looking at the economic warfare. If the currency is messed up, the fiscal state of the nation becomes imperiled. Today, our balance of payment will struggle as the Naira bleeds against most global currencies as many people rush to turn their underground Nairas into USD, GBP, Euro, etc. Yes, the action of CBN has crept into the doors of the ministry of finance.

We need to be practical on national matters. Our CBN governor and finance minister must work together as a team to serve Nigeria. The President must send a memo to both and mandate them to work together on any major policy because the core difference between what the CBN does and what the finance ministry should celebrate, before Nigerians, is half a dozen and 6. Indeed, the president might not have known that the finance ministry was not aware of the redesigning naira plan as he approved for the CBN. Yes, I would not have expected him to go ahead if he was well updated that the finance ministry was not informed.

Mr. President, summon the CBN governor and the finance minister immediately, and charge them to work together. If that does not happen,   the implication is that nothing catalytic will come from this important part of the government.

LinkedIn Summary

In this piece, I write that President Buhari must summon the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor and the finance minister (Zainab Ahmed) to explain the circumstances which led to an unbelievable accusation that the apex bank planned to redesign the national currency with no input from the finance ministry.

You cannot separate monetary policies and banking regulations from national financial policies and implementation. The main jobs of a central bank are to keep a country’s currency stable (keep inflation low) and boost employment (manage interest rates). It cannot do those things effectively in isolation without the finance ministry which handles the national budget.

Do not tell me that a central bank governor is appointed to win an economic battle without looking at the economic warfare. If the currency is messed up, the fiscal state of the nation becomes imperiled, falling on the doors of the finance minister. In other words, there is no way these two leaders must not work together if we expect to have decent outcomes from our leaders.

Nigeria’s Central Bank Did Not Tell the Finance Ministry of Plan To Redesign Naira

Good People, our feed got featured in LinkedIn News. The post was an amazing one ( read here  ) – it was about a rich man who bought a blue bird with $44 billion, reminding me of my life in the village of Ovim. We hunted for birds on the road to the village stream (Tantuta) with our catapults. But here, the zen-master of money, Elon Musk, who has demonstrated new physics on how to accumulate empires with no financial gravitational force affecting his voyage, is leading the way.

I am a fan of Musk and do hope he will not do to his bird what we used to do in the village: after you have gotten a bird, most times, after playing with it, you abandon it, because there was really nothing you could do with it. His blue bird is very expensive at $44 billion and he cannot afford to leave it to fly away! Good luck Musk.

Mr. Musk, I know you have a company called The Boring Company. The way you guys bore holes to transport people reminds of how we look for rabbits in the burrow. But I tell you frankly: you do not abandon bird hunting for rabbit hunting as the tools and strategies are never the same. Simply, nurture the blue bird as it is the world’s village square.

Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion Twitter takeover, according to SEC filings. The Tesla CEO tweeted Friday that one of his first moves will be “forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” before making big content decisions, including whether to reinstate banned accounts. Meanwhile, General Motors said it was “temporarily” suspending advertising on Twitter as it evaluates the platform’s new direction. Twitter shares were suspended from trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday. They are slated to be delisted on Nov. 8. (LinkedIn News)

People, who is running Nigeria? Tribune reports: “Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmad, has disassociated her ministry from the planned move by the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) to redesign the naira….“Distinguished senators, we were not consulted at the Ministry of Finance by CBN on the planned naira redesigning and cannot comment on it as regards merits or otherwise.” O di egwu.

From Tribune

The minister, who commented on the policy in response to a question raised by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central) during the 2023 budget defense session with the Senate Committee on Finance, warned CBN of consequences that may arise from the new policy.

Senator Bamidele had told the minister that barely two days after the announcement of the plan, the effect on the value of the naira to the US dollar was being felt.

“Just two days after the announcement of the policy, the value of naira to a US dollar has risen from N740 to N788 due to a rush in exchange of naira notes for foreign currencies, particularly dollars.

In her quick response, the minister said she and her ministry are not aware of the policy but only heard of it from the media.

“Distinguished senators, we were not consulted at the Ministry of Finance by CBN on the planned naira redesigning and cannot comment on it as regards merits or otherwise.

“However as a Nigerian privileged to be at the top of Nigeria’s fiscal management, the policy as rolled out at this time portends serious consequences on the value of the naira to other foreign currencies.

“I will however appeal to this committee to invite the CBN governor for required explanations as regards merits of the planned policy and rightness or otherwise of its implementation now,” she said.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had on Wednesday said that the apex bank would redesign the country’s currency from N200 denomination to N1000 notes.

He said that the action was taken in order to take control of the currency in circulation, just as he posited that 80 percent of the nation’s currency notes were outside bank vaults and that the CBN would not allow the situation to continue.

Elon Musk made it home yesterday with a special toy. Yes, the blue bird toy is his now. What he plans to do with it remains cloudy but we know that he has picked a title “Chief Twit” to organize the toy-space. It looks amazing when you have a $44 billion toy to play with. Certainly, he will hope he can make tons of friends to join to play.

But as he looks over his toy, the reality of the world of business comes into play. He  has delivered a poison pill to some Twitter executives. Yes, the same people who went to court to compel him to buy Twitter. But in the way it works, most times, after that purchase, those people usually lose their jobs: “Musk didn’t waste time firing CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett, head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde.” 

This bird will fly because Musk has shown already that he can move news. If Twitter is the modern global village square which hosts the mind of the generation’s finest innovator, that alone is a reason for many to converge. The challenge for the bird, though, is that when you let loose a bird, it may decide to pick the wrong tree to perch. 

Twitter has not been generating revenue for the EU, etc via penalties and fines (ask Facebook, Google, etc). Depending on what Musk does, this bird can become a profit-center for Europe!

As a kid, I used my catapult to hunt for birds. Going to Tantuta stream, you could see many birds. However, if you want to improve your odds of getting one, you have to aim at Kpaakpaa tree which had many birds and was the tallest tree around. Indeed, now that the richest man is in charge of Twitter, watch the high voltage regulatory searches on this blue bird because it cannot hide anymore.

Yes, the European Union has a new profit-center to balance the budget with those fines.

US SEC Announces the Delisting of Twitter from New York Stock Exchange

Join Tekedia Capital to congratulate our portfolio startup, Touch and Pay Technologies Ltd (YC W22), for winning the prestigious Ecobank Fintech Challenge. TAP is a category-king company and the largest microtransactions leader in Africa. I congratulate Congrats Olamide. Michael, Ogochukwu and Kabir for executing at the highest level possible.

Currently serving 2.3 million customers, we are confident that the 10 millionth customer will be celebrated soon as you tap into the Ecobank network to expand. Congratulations team. The path to unicorn is clearer. And ringing the special bell because I have got a bell from Ovim.

To learn more about TAP, go here. For Tekedia Capital, go here.

Press Release

Ecobank Group (www.Ecobank.com) is proud to announce that Touch and Pay a Nigeria-based fintech has won the 2022 edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge. This announcement was made at the Grand Finale, today at Ecobank’s headquarters in Lomé,  presided by H.E. Cina Lawson, Minister of  Digital Economy and Transformation, Republic of Togo. Touch and Pay took home a $50,000 cash prize, the largest no-strings attached fintech cash prize in Africa.

Touch and Pay processes microtransactions across Africa, such as paying for bus journeys. Today, Touch and Pay has over 2 million users who help 500,000 people make payments every day.

The winner and the other five finalists were also inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship – a unique programme that gives the Fintech Fellows the opportunity to explore potential commercial partnerships with the Bank, such as integrating with Ecobank’s pan-African banking platforms and scaling their fintech businesses across Ecobank’s 33 African markets.

The five other finalists for the 2022 edition are:

• Cauri Money, Senegal
• DizzitUp, Togo
• MaishaPay, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Moni Africa, Nigeria
• Paycode, South Africa
• Touch and Pay, Nigeria

Ade Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group, congratulating the finalists, said: “This year’s six finalists have set the bar high at this Grand Finale. Their innovations are revolutionising the financial payments landscape in Africa and advancing financial inclusion. It is an honour for the Ecobank Group to partner with them and jointly transform the financial landscape of our continent.” Mr Ayeyemi also expressed Ecobank’s “profound appreciation to all our partners especially Arise, the gold sponsor of the 2022 Challenge, as well as to the Jury who worked tirelessly to evaluate the finalists and select the winner.”

Gavin Tipper, the CEO of Arise, a gold partner and co-sponsor of the challenge, said: “Arise extends its congratulations to the finalists and the winner for the creativity and innovation they displayed. The Ecobank Fintech Challenge has become an important platform for supporting fintech innovators and encouraging bold solutions to advancing financial inclusion in Africa. The talent on offer in this year’s pool of finalists once again exceeded expectations, and we look forward to seeing how the different products transform financial services on the continent.”

Oluwole Michael, CEO of Touch and Pay expressing deep satisfaction at winning the Fintech Challenge, commented: “We at Touch and pay (TAP) are excited about the opportunity given to us to work with Ecobank, a pan-African bank operating across Africa.  This plugs into our vision of helping 250m Africans process cash-based transactions digitally making them truly cashless and providing true credit facilities for merchants, retailers, and customers.”

In addition to the pitch  by each of the six finalists and a keynote address by H.E. Cina Lawson, highlights at the Grand Finale included panel discussions on ‘Sustaining and deepening investor interest in African Fintech in the face of global economic crisis: what should investors, Fintech companies and governments do?’ and ‘Ensuring Fintech-friendly regulations that accelerate start-up growth and maturity: what is the best way forward for Africa.’

Almost 4,000 start-ups have participated in the five editions of Ecobank Fintech Challenge since it was launched in 2017. Since then, 52 Fintechs have been inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship. The 2022 Challenge was supported by partners including Arise, Konfidants, Tech Cabal, Africa Fintech Network and ALX Ventures.