The CBN issued a press release yesterday vehemently denying that it was planning to convert the Foreign Currency Domiciliary Account Deposits (US Dollars or British Pounds Sterling) of customers in Nigerian banks into Naira. It also went on to say that it has never contemplated such an action and has no intention to do so. In other words there is no intention at all to tamper with the Foreign Exchange Currencies in the accounts of customers in our banks.
Now all that looks good and comforting to the ear. One thing that this however fails to disprove is that the CBN actually has the power to convert the Foreign Currency Domiciliary Account Deposits (US Dollars or British Pounds Sterling) of customers in Nigerian banks into Naira.
If it did it probably should have said that in the press release. This makes one simple assume that the CBN has this powers and may just one day invoke it. Now, that thought alone is SCARY.
If Naira continues to go down the tubes relative to dollar and Nigerian reserve continues to dwindle with oil prices still in the toilet then CBN will definitely try to grab the dom account as its last resort and run with it..Hey if they twisted western union’s arms to start paying in naira then its definitely possible they could monkey around with Dom account someday…the long term consequences will be that folks will start repatriating back their funds to the states and Europe and Nigeria will be left holding the bag..in essence its an ill wind that will blow nobody no good