The "Sins" of Meffy

With 9 years in office, Mr Godwin Emiefele (permit me to call him "Meffy" was the longest serving CBN governor since Nigeria's return to democracy in 1999 - he served from 2014 to 2023.

I will remember Meffy for many things - some positive and others confusing. Personally, Meffy has been the number 1 source for most of my content in the last 3 years since I started sharing actively online. Secondly, a lot of the Fintech boom seems to have happened during his tenure. PiggyVest, Flutterwave, TeamApt (now MoniePoint), Paystack, etc were all founded during his time. I'm sure many would say that they thrived "in spite of" and not because of him. Nonetheless, I think it's interesting to note that Meffy is the only CBN governor many of the current fintech founders have run their companies under (including me).

What are the "sins" of Meffy? I'm careful to use the word "sins" because some of Meffy's moves were not considered bad by everyone at the time. Take for instance the forex restriction of 41 items for import. It was pushed as an import-substitution policy and many people lined up in support. Then of course, Meffy spear headed the largest gap between the official exchange rate and the black market exchange rate of the dollar to the naira. This wide gap created many uncertainties, and forced the rationing of dollar. As we have seen, it is very difficult to manually ration something in short supply, but with very high demand.

The funny thing is that the average Nigerian might have not cared for limited forex availability. After all, na who don chop dey find dollar. But when you make it extremely difficult for people to access their own money through a naira redesign and ill conceived cashless policy, it's very hard to retain goodwill afterwards.

During Buhari and Meffy's reign, they somehow managed to get people to focus less on supply-side and fiscal policies: the economy seemed to be dictated mostly by monetary policies. It's also fascinating how a CBN governor became so interested in agriculture, that he was prescribing how to take care of cows on national TV!😁.


To be fair though, Meffy's time did have some critical shocks beyond his control - oil price crash of 2015, brazen pipeline vandalism, the 2020 pandemic, etc. While the CBN had a role to play in managing these issues, I think the federal government (and public to some extent), relied too heavily on the CBN for answers, when there were so many other actors responsible for contributing in different capacities. This is something Buhari did not manage well as a leader.

I haven't even covered things like E-naira or his presidential bid. I hope one day, he would write a book to tell his side of the story. Meffy's time was quite entertaining - you never knew what to expect! Definitely not a CBN governor to be forgotten anytime soon.

KingOfIsoko1:
I supported the Naira redesign which Tinubu ensured failed.


Tinubu was the sole reason naira redesign failed

Tinubu is a wicked man and God will fight

KingOfIsoko1:
I supported the Naira redesign which Tinubu ensured failed.


Tinubu was the sole reason naira redesign failed

Tinubu is a wicked man and God will fight

WorldRichest:



God is not a street boy that fights every reasonable person.

Secondly, isn't it obvious that God loves Tinubu more than any other African?

Stop thinking that God is from your village, and that he will only asnwer your prayers.

fadsam:
Meffy- the devil incarnate