Post a comment
Prominent Civil Society Organization, Native Consortium and Research Cente (NCRC) has reacted to Central Bank of Sierra Leone’s extension of the Old Leones as legal tender to 31st December 2023.
NCRC urges the Acting Bank Governor and team to deal with the Re-denomination hangover left by the Former Bank Governor within Six months.
They further call on all political parties (APC and SLPP) flagbearers to tell voters how they expect to address two( 2) main monetary regime catastrophes:
(1) To checkmate the breakneck speed of the depreciation of the Leone which has created inflation pressure that has taken a toll on ordinary folks.
(2) Controlling the liquidity Volatility within 6 months timeline for the nation to move to the new Re-denominated notes and phase out the old notes using two parallel currencies as legal tender is unacceptable and will further expose the nation to shocks and counterfeit scammers.
The consortium believes a medium and long-term monetary regime strategy is key but we can recalibrate with four short-term roadmaps as a quick solution.
Below are some of the quick solutions put forward by the consortium:
(a) Currency Swap to Strategic Trade countries with Sierra Leone.
(b) Surrender Obligation; A percentage (15%) of export proceed received by mining companies in forex should be surrendered to the central bank, the Central Bank in turn makes payments to the company in Leones by the annual monetary -cum- fiscal policy strategy in our national budget and other financial instruments which give the Central Bank the powers to enforce.
(C) Dedolarisation of the economy by criminalizing (informal sector) transactions made in US Dollars.
(D) Inclusivity by calling on a Public Dialogue: The Central Bank should call an urgent consultative meeting for all business actors, Banks, and representatives from the Informal sector to chat about the way forward.
As much as the President has acted too late to offload the Bank Governor, the president has a window of hope to address the Citizens’ concerns by giving this new team A 6 months Timeline for them to deliver as one of their terms of reference.
Though Nigeria has a bigger transactions monetary economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) almost rolled out three months towards the just concluded elections except for the injunction slammed by the Supreme Court to extend the time to 31/12/ 2023 the use of the old Naira as a legal tender.
The Press statement concluded that the sacked Bank Governor left behind a hangover of monetary baggage with uncertainty to address for the New-old team the New-old-leones.
