The presidency has called on the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPC to identify the exact problem that has continued to set Naira on a free fall against the dollar in the parallel market. Last week, following the groaning by most Nigerians over the free fall of the Naira against the dollar with some even calling for the head of the CBN boss to be sacked, the CBN blamed the NNPC for failure to remit the dollar into the foreign reserve was the reason for the naira free fall in the parallel market.
At the time Nigerians started kicking against the CBN by blaming it for the dwindling of the Naira, a dollar was going for N700/$1 in the parallel market, while N415 at the official market.
The CBN blame game seems to have contradicted itself when a document from the NNPC indicated that the company had so far remitted a total of $2.7billion at the time the document was sighted from January to June.
Financial experts and some section of Nigerians were worried over the blame game the two major federal government institutions were engaged in, making a caricature of the federal government itself.
To get the two institutions into understanding themselves, the Federal Government has waded into the matter to ensure that the Naira does not continue to fall.
Source from within revealed that “As we speak, there is a meeting over this issue at the presidency to resolve the anomaly because the report that they (NNPC) remitted $2.7bn to the federation is misconceived as money to the government.
“The fund they remitted is not oil imports,” he added.
He explained, “The money they remitted was not even up to the forex they require for the importation of white products and that was why they sought augmentation to meet the threshold.”
Another official said it was normal for the NNPC to have operational accounts with the CBN but that remittances into the FAAC were halted by NNPC Ltd for several months as it has been using the fund for the importation of petrol at a subsidized rate.
“While the CBN desperately needs the US dollar to stabilize the economy, the NNPC is equally battling hard to ensure that there is no relapse in fuel supply in the country. The two of them don’t want to be found wanting.
The two giant institutions were in the first place mend to serve the Nigerian people to achieve greater height in the economic transformation in the country especially now that the naira is proving difficult to be protected.
Meanwhile, vigil360 has not yet gotten the identities of the officials discussing on behalf of the federal government.
