Cryptocurrency, old Naira notes, other Buhari’s policies reversed by Tinubu

 

President Bola Tinubu, in the past six months, has been rolling back a number of policies initiated by his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.

Even though both Messers Tinubu and Buhari are of the same political parties, there have been glaring contrasts between them, especially on the economic policy side.

Mr Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, is more towards the liberal economic side, while Buhari, a former military leader, is more protectionist. In 2013, both came together to form a united Front against former President Goodluck Jonathan.

For eight years, Mr Tinubu was quiet on the policies of the government and only spoke up when a policy appeared to be targeted at him during the election.

During the election, Mr Tinubu openly disagreed with the former administration on the implementation of the Naira redesigning policy.

With his emergence, Mr Tinubu has continued to strip some of the policies embarked on by former President Buhari.

Top six policy reversed by President Tinubu

Removing ASUU from IPPIS

For years, university lecturers and President Tinubu fought over the implementation of the IPPIS platform.

The lecturers argued that their peculiarities do not fit the IPPIS platform, stating that the platform was denying them some allowances and benefits.

Every year, the impasse led to months of shutdown of schools. Under Buhari, Nigerian universities were shut down for 1,086 days.

It would be recalled that ASUU proposed UTAS as an alternative but the Buhari administration rejected it, leading to a prolonged industrial action that kept students at home for long.

Ban on Cryptocurrency

One other major policy this government has unrolled is the ban on cryptocurrency imposed by former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The CBN under Emefiele, on February 5, directed all banks to close all accounts involved in cryptocurrency transactions within their systems.

Recently, Yemi Cardoso, the new CBN governor directed a reversal of that policy, lifting the ban on cryptocurrency.

43 Items on FX ban

The CBN on October 12 lifted the 8-year ban on 43 items restricted from accessing foreign exchange from the official market.

Benconews recalls that in 2015, the CBN banned 43 items, such as rice, cement and poultry, from accessing forex.

In lifting the ban, the monetary authorities say importers of the items are allowed to purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.

It would be recalled that protectionism policies formed the bedrock of the Buhari administration.

The former President shut down land borders for years in order to protect the investment in the agricultural sector, particularly rice.

Mr Emefiele had through the anchor borrowers programme, pumped money into the rice production sector.

Phase out of old Naira

The redesigning of the Naira was a major talking point during the election period, as many believe it was targeted at President Tinubu.

The policy led to the scarcity of the Naira, which caused severe hardship as people could not access cash to do even basic transactions.

Some state governments challenged the policy at the Supreme Court. However, the court did not give a verdict until after the election. The court ruled that the two currencies should co-exist till December 2023.

However, in November, the government announced the extension of the validity of the old currency indefinitely.

40 per cent IGR of schools

The Buhari administration, through the Finance Act of 2020, mandated a 40 per cent auto deduction of gross IGR of partially funded agencies, including federal government-owned institutions.

The current administration moved to implement the law in October but later bowed to the pressure from the universities.