HOPE BANKERS ARE NOT KOBO WISE?

It may sound so logical but the potential is also there that led by the Bankers  Committee in the absence of first rate macro economic management Nigeria is finally being kobo wise Naira foolish.
According to news reports this morning the Bankers Committee of the Central Bank rose from a meeting yesterday almost with a consensus that the time has come to stop allocating foreign exchange for school fees and health care abroad.
The near consensus was predicated on the compiled figures from banks that showed forex for schiol fees abroad was on the increase and now consumes not less than 15% of total dollars purchased officially by the banks from the CBN at official rates.
Access Banks Group Managing Director Mr Herbert Wigwe is quoted to have put it this way after the meeting:
" we find pressure on different banks in terms of demand but generally never below 15% of the demand of current foreign exchange that is being given to the banks is for school fees that by any stretch of imagination is substantial"
He reported added  "Now the deliberations we had today did not agree on any final decision but one thing is clear which was the fact that we should not allow this demand crowd out real sector investors because money you get to pay these school fees is from industry that is working locally"
Henates wants to believe that he meant to say allocation for fees deprive working local industries of forex and not that the forex is from the local industry. It is not because producing for export is still a far away dream for Nigeria with her huge foreign goods hungry population and gallivanting new leaders.
Be that as it may the issue of school fees had better be handled with utmost care.
One because many of the top flying Nigerians abroad today who daily send millions of dollars home were yesterdays Nigerians who went abroad to study.
Two because there is no way the present decay in our educational sector can be fixed in a couple of years even if we had a government committed to it and not applause seeking daily free food.
Three some of the courses some of these students undergo abroad will shape Nigeria's future and it will be foolhardy to cut off their fund supply. Indeed if all was well, instead of spending billions subsidising imported fuel we would have done the nation a big favour by offering such courses scholarships.
So all it boils down to is that somebody is attempting to take an easy way our of a growing problem that needs good study for decision making.
Good forex for fees abroad is rising, of course that is worth a closer look. Why is it? When did the trend start? What are these students studying and where? Which banks are selling more for fees? Is there a possibility that traders have suddenly become students abroad simply to have access to forex at official rates?
Well the fault lies not with the bankers who have found themselves managing the troubled Nigerian economy while officials from the President paid to do are busy travelling outside Nigeria with begging bowl that is yet to come back home full at any time. Yet their appetite for estacode continues to grow.