- The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the umpteenth time yesterday disclosed that it has foreclosed plans on further devaluation of the naira.
- Special Adviser to the CBN Governor on Communications, Mr. Ugo Okoroafor, stated this during a live television programme, Business Morning, monitored by NAIRAMETRICS in Lagos yesterday.
- The apex bank’s standpoint is coming on the heels of measures put in place to shore up the value of the naira against the United States dollar, which has been on the upscale for over two months.
- He said some Nigerians had speculated that the CBN, in the face of the dwindling fortunes of the naira, would devalue the currency to provide support for it, adding that this set of people are the ones putting pressure on the naira by stockpiling dollars to now sell at a later date for huge returns.
- Clearing the air on the recent policy of banks to suspend receipt of foreign currencies into domiciliary accounts, Director, Reserve Management (CBN), Mr. Lamido Yuguda, said the decision was that of the respective Deposit Money Banks (DMB) and not that of the CBN.
“The request to stop further collection of forex into domiciliary accounts is not a CBN policy but that of DMB, though it’s a step we support because it would further help to tighten the noose on currency speculators. A lot of DMBs had huge stock of dollars and other currencies in their vault as a result of the activities of speculators, who on a daily basis continued to bombard them with forex, only to return at a later date to withdraw and sell at the parallel market,” he lamented.
- He argued that some set of people don’t have a reason to open a domiciliary account but only do so for speculative reasons by exchanging naira for dollars to sell at a later date when the value of dollar rises.
