Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Governor will soon be invited by the Nigerian Senate over the freefall of Naira in the last few weeks. The national currency has suffered a hit against other foreign currencies since the beginning of the year, with no end in sight to its continuous woes.
Lat week, the CBN warned politicians against illegal purchase of dollars with naira for the purpose of the 2023 electioneering campaigns, in what financial experts described as one of the last-ditch efforts to salvage the naira from further sliding.
Emefiele gave the warning after the monthly Monetary Policy Meeting, MPC meeting.
He said “For those who want to use the naira to buy dollars because of election, I want to warn, not advise, that it is illegal to do so. Whereas it will sound more convenient that you should carry dollars because it has a lot of value in your pocket.
“But if the security agencies hold you, you know the implication of that, we would continue from our side. We have our apparatus through which we monitor the movement of funds between customers or between banks and customers from one bank to the other bank.
“Any bank that we find in those types of transactions that we consider to be unauthorised or that we consider to be illegal. You can imagine that your account will be placed on post no debit (PND).”
At the time the apex bank governor gave the warning, the American greenback as Dollar is known was exchanged for N650 at the unofficial currency exchange market. The currency has dipped further to over N700 to a dollar within a week with no prospect of gaining against the dollar.
Other interventions so far adopted by the government bank in the last one year to save the naira includes the ban of Abokifx, a website that collates the black-market exchange rates of naira.
The firm was accused of “illegal activity that undermines the economy,” by the CBN.
Also, the CBN last year stopped the sale of forex to bureau de change in the country after accusing them of sabotaging the economy. The Emefiele-led bank now sell forex direct to commercial banks who in turn sell to customers.
The magazine learnt that the leadership of the Senate is seriously worried that the situation could get worse, and has therefore decided to summon the CBN governor on the way forward.
“We cannot continue like this and nothing is done. If the situation is allowed to continue the way it is, we may just wake up one day and the naira will be exchanged N1000 to a dollar.
“This is not acceptable to us. The CBN which is in charge of the government’s monetary policy must come up with a solution. We will all put heads together to chart a way forward before out currency totally collapsed, taking the economy with it,” a senator said on Wednesday.
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