The former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to re-consider some of the recent monetary policies, especially those, according to him, whose adverse effects outweighed their positive impacts. Obi was speaking to journalists during the ordination of 2015 set of priests by the Awka Diocese of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka, on Saturday.

Obi, who confessed that he appreciated the motives behind some of the recent regulations, said the issue of domiciliary account needed to be re-considered as it was hurting the economy due to its effects on small and medium scale businesses, which he noted were the biggest employers of labour in the country.

He insisted that any policy not favourable to small and medium scale businesses both in short and long terms, should be re-examined, especially now that one of the biggest problems facing Nigeria remained  that of unemployment.   “Besides,” he said, “those small and medium businesses are pivotal to the fight against extreme poverty.”

Obi, who said that a survey of small and medium scale businesses in cities such as Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba, Lagos (Alaba, Trade fair complex), among others, would reveal that traders were suffering and that the unintended negative impacts of the policy dwarfed its positive effects, called on the CBN to commission a study so as to obtain the realities on ground.