A couple weeks ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria published a policy communication document authored by its Governor on COVID-19 pandemic response titled: Turning the COVID-19 tragedy into an opportunity for a New Nigeria. The Governor’s writing seemed to express alarm at the supposed lack of multilateralism in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he linked to the temporary bans imposed on export of certain essential COVID-19 response materials and agricultural commodities by different world leaders.
Citing decisions made by Germany, France, India, United States, Russia and Vietnam, he argued that the measures were taken to protect their own people and economies without regard to the spill over effects on the rest of the world.
I think that it is untrue that measures taken by other leaders were taken without regard to its impact elsewhere. Without running the risk of being perceived as anti-multilateralism, I would like to say that it is for a reason that passengers on an airplane are advised to secure their oxygen masks first during depressurisation before attempting to help others.
The fact is that COVID-19 is a shocker and a fast-evolving and as yet uncontained disease with a still unclear scale of impact. Some countries may want to conduct an inventory of their resources vis-a-vis the COVID-19 challenge they are facing before deciding on the scale of multilateral effort they want to engage in.
China has been able to reach out to a lot of countries particularly in Africa, including Nigeria, with support especially personal protective equipment (PPE) because of her competitive advantage in manufacturing such supplies at huge scale, and also possibly because it has contained the spread of the virus within its territories and therefore can have the clarity of vision to look outwards.
It is also important to highlight that it is not time to accept all hands of multilateralism just because Nigeria has found herself in difficult times. Had Nigeria implemented different developmental and economic policies, some of which the Governor mentioned he initiated on assuming office, we would not be having a panic attack now, and having concern about what Germany, France, India, Russia, Vietnam or the US are doing at the moment.
We would probably be talking about supporting at least other West African countries with PPEs and maybe food relief, but unfortunately, we don’t have enough to use ourselves, neither do we have clear leadership on the COVID-19 mitigation strategies undertaken in the different states. We are exposed, naked and in dire need for interventions.
While I admit that some of the policies the Governor had proposed that the Central Bank would pursue in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria were commendable, however, they are not robust enough to respond to the urgent socioeconomic challenges he highlighted in his policy statement. For instance, no long-term policy priority was proposed. Only immediate, short term and medium-term interventions of between 0-3 years (when the present administration will serve out its term) were offered.
While the Governor acknowledged the incredible role that Nigerians are playing around the world in driving innovations in every field of life, and equally echoed the urgency with which Nigeria must create an environment that empowers Nigerians to thrive within Nigeria, his policy proposal failed to vote a single Naira to improve funding of Nigeria’s universities and research institutions. His policy merely promised to look at efforts to drive innovations in our tertiary institutions and other spaces.
The economies that we look up to today rode on the back and climbed on the shoulders of their educational and research institutions in particular. For instance, the Republic of Korea in 1971 established the Korea Development Institute (KDI) as a policy oriented research institute devoted to supporting South Korea’s aspiration of making an “economic leap-forward” and till date KDI has been leading in the “scientification of policymaking,” setting South Korea’s long term national agenda and policy directions based on rigorous analysis.
With respect to sectors that will receive financial intervention, the main concern is how efficient the implementation will be – as Nigeria’s problems are not largely lack of policies but their implementation. For instance, one of the interventions proposed by the Governor for households and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is already facing its first implementation roadblock. CBN have had to issue a disclaimer that it does not charge fees for accessing /processing the 50 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) COVID-19 Pandemic Stimulus Package, following allegations that applicants were asked to make payments.
Based on industry experience, bigger challenges and roadblocks await big businesses that may want to access CBN’s COVID-19 financial interventions if the CBN and financial institutions that will help disburse these facilities do not remove the lengthy, highly frustrating, expensive bureaucratic and administrative bottlenecks that normally get in the way even for very qualified, responsible and credible businesses. Simply put, CBN’s new interventions cannot be served through old, problematic structures and mechanisms. A system change – transformation is needed to deliver quick and effective results that are required in a COVID-19 pandemic era.
Regarding other sectoral priorities highlighted by the CBN policy document such as boosting job creation, household incomes and economic growth through housing development, mortgage finance and institutional capacity, I will advise the CBN to put its interventions in these sectors on hold and direct its resources to supporting Nigeria’s government to conduct a comprehensive National Census. It is unacceptable for the government to continue to plan and implement interventions for Nigerians without data or with at best, 14-year-old data. It is wasteful, unpatriotic and un-visionary to continue to do so.
I believe the CBN Governor and his team may need to go back to the drawing board to re-evaluate these policy decisions it has taken, and consider making strategic targeted investments into Nigeria’s educational, research institutions, innovation systems and social institutions, and also adopt new sets of result-oriented policy approaches to achieve the transformative change that he envisions for Nigeria in the policy statement.
Solving Post-COVID-19 pandemic socioeconomic and environmental challenges will require more than throwing money into old, failed, dysfunctional, ineffective, inefficient systems, it will require a total system change/transformation; and the earlier government and her institutions realise this, the better for Nigeria.
Akachukwu Okafor
Okafor Akachukwu a Mandela Washington Fellow (Public Management, University of Maine) and Principal Partner at Change Partners International. aka@changepartnersintl.com
