The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has urged Nigerians of all classes to desist from buying dollars with naira and had warned that anyone or institution caught in such act will be prosecuted. The governor of the apex bank, Mr Godwin Emefiele while reading the riot act to bank customers at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting made this disclosure.
According to the governor, “As far as we are concerned, we monitor liquidity in the subsystem. We will use our powers to mop up cash and for those taking money from banks to buy dollars, it is illegal to do so. If the security agencies hold you, you will know the implication of that."
He added that “We are monitoring customers and banks and any bank involved would be sanctioned. We will place Post no Debit on the defaulting customer’s account. It is a very injurious tool to stop you from conducting illegal flows, either domestic or foreign currency. We will conduct investigations, and we will have proof and you will not be able to conduct transactions in any Nigerian bank.”
On Tuesday, the Naira lost N7 against the dollar in the black market to quote at N625/$1 compared with the previous day’s N618/$1 and in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment, it fell by N11 to sell for N640/$1 in contrast to Monday’s value of N629/$1.
It is with the fears of further depreciation that Mr Emefiele issued this warning, as it has become necessary heading into the election season where political actors would want to mop up FX from the system to prosecute the 2023 general elections.
