Between 2009-2014, when I served as Dep Gov for Financial System Stability, @cenbank achieved numerous feats. We stabilized and reformed Nigeria’s banking system after the global financial crisis, brought inflation down to 8%,
strengthened the Bank itself institutionally, and massively reformed the Nigerian payments system with digital/electronic payments and the introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN, introduced while I was DepGov (Operations). These achievements were not random/accidental.
They were the outcomes of corporate STRATEGY developed and agreed by its Board of Directors, the Committee of Governors, and the Monetary Policy Committee, all header ultimately by the then Governor, Lamido Sanusi (now Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano. It was a collegiate
leadership of senior leaders that we all were, with the Governor as the Head. As a DepGov I was a member of all three leadership bodies, and also a member of the Strategy Committee of the Bord of Directors. We held annual board retreats where we worked out the Bank’s strategy
to govern the financial system, it’s work, and the parts of the economy under its purview. We set goals and and plans to achieve them. I recall our work during perhaps @cenbank’s proudest period as a practical background example of the importance of governing with strategy. We
had a strategy department whose work 24/7 was the development and management of strategy.I stand to be corrected, but I believe we were the only statutory corporation in Nigeria “( @cenbank is not a ministry, department, “agency” or parastatal) with a dedicated strategy function.
We often assume we know what our obstacles to development are - ethnicity, corruption etc. We should get on with “action”. But the truth is that we have not understood our challenges at a level that makes a real difference. Our problems are much deeper. They are foundational.
They can only be addressed by a transformation that begins in the mind, in the way we think. Thinking is more important than we think. We must “think it through”. Because we refuse to do so, Nigeria can’t formulate and implement public policy that change our circumstances.
Enter strategy. The effective formulation and execution of strategy gives life to worldviews and moves nations or companies from A to B. Strategy must be embedded in governance thinking and architecture in Nigeria, focused on effective governance that delivers value to citizens.
As the strategist Max McKeown writes, strategy is about shaping the future. It is about how to create the future of our imagination. That “how” is the difference between dreaming, visioning, and bridging the gap in between. Strategy is a set of integrated actions planned over
time to achieve a desired outcome. It’s a “game-plan” to get from a current state to a desired one, with defined goals and milestones, and resources for achieving those goals. It helps good leaders achieve long-term transformation at national, regional or corporate levels.
*headed
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Multiparty democracy , to be real and benefit Africa, must mean 7 things that are broadly absent presently:
1. The contest for electoral offices must be for authority to govern, with the legitimacy from the popular vote, not for power for its own sake or for self-enrichment.
2. Electoral contests must be a contest of alternative ideas, visions or philosophies about how society can make progress. Every successful democracy is based on contending IDEAS.
3. The PROCESS of elections must have integrity in order to be legitimate. This means the umpire
must be neutral as between contending parties & must be truly independent, not controlled/influenced by government, ruling or opposition parties.
4. The electorate must be both basically and politically literate. This is necessary to have capacity to assess candidates for votes.
I respectfully disagree with President @officialABAT ‘s response to the visit to him by The Patriots, led by former @commonwealthsec Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, during which the group (of which I am a member) pressed for a new Constitution for Nigeria as a matter of
urgency, and recommending specific steps to achieve this. While PBAT received the eminent elder statesman and his colleagues with the appropriate dignity and protocols (“this is a group I cannot ignore”, Tinubu noted), the President asserted that economic reform (and the
crisis that it has created in the country) is his priority right now, but that his government would of course study the recommendations of The Patriots and respond (hopefully with action and not merely words). What Nigeria’s leaders fail to understand is that it will be extremely
The @nnpclimited v @AlikoDangote saga is a sad tale of how successive governments of Nigeria have failed to create a real economy that generates wealth for its citizens. Our economy works only for a very few who get rich while Nigerians continually get poorer. #Rentseeking
The economic failure of Nigeria's leaders because of loyalties to vested interests and unholy ties between "business" and government is deeply unfortunate. @NigeriaGov is, and has been unable, either to stimulate through effect economic policy a set of strategic oligopolies
across sectors under which smaller businesses and supply chains thrive, making up a successful national economy as in South Korea. Neither has the government, on the other hand, been able to create a truly competitive, level playing field for business in Nigeria so that wealth
In the debates on national wage in Nigeria we miss the fundamental point: there is little or no productivity in the economy. If we had a truly productive economy there is no reason we can’t have the kind of minimum wage of 400 or 500K that Labour wants. But we can’t, because the
level of productivity in the economy cannot support it. Remember, minimum wage is not just about government salaries. There are not more than 2, at most 3 million civil servants in Nigeria. It is even more about what is paid in the private sector, to household staff, etc.
All of this is why, all things considered, including avoiding a minimum wage that multiplies already ravaging inflation (assuming such a wage can even be paid), I recommend a minimum wage of between N75,000 and N100,000.
In fact, speaking about productivity, how productive is
The Naira tanking back down to the 1,400s to $1 demonstrates what some of us have been saying. Seeking a falsely “strong” currency when the fundamentals are out of whack is shadow chasing. The focus should be on the STABILITY of the exchange rate, not a populist exchange rate
and premature declarations of “best performing currency”. Reports that there are now multiple exchange rates to BDCs, Customs, and NAFEX are also worrying. It’s not yet uhuru. Let us stabilize the Naira at whatever is its true market value and then pivot to the real issues:
taking Nigeria to 20-25K megawatts of 24 hour electricity in 2-3 years starting with Lagos, Kano, Onitsha and Nnewi (Aba seems promising with Geometric power) so we can create a truly productive economy. Dealing decisively with oil theft and ramping up oil production to bring in
Our relationships with others sometimes deepen or shrink in strange ways. When I was a Deputy Gov at the CBN, there was this bank MD that wanted my approval for certain things concerning his challenged bank. But he would not follow the guidelines we gave him, instead looking for
shortcuts and expecting me to play along. One day my patience snapped. I terminated our conversation and showed him the door of my office. Long story short, the matter was eventually resolved after the bank met certain regulatory conditions. Today that MD (since retired) is
a good friend. After I completed my tenure in November 2014 and left the apex bank, my deceased father in law was buried in early 2015. The MD sent a personal representative to the funeral with a gift. Note the phrase “after I had completed my tenure and left the apex bank”.