the public that the CBN plans to convert foreign exchange in domiciliary customer accounts into naira in order to check purported shortage of availability of the dollars. However, the central bank, on Monday (2 August) dismissed these claims, adding that they were insinuated by those who intend to create panic in the foreign exchange market.
Osita Nwanisobi, acting director of CBN’s Corporate Communications Department, assured the public that the central bank will not tamper with the FX deposits in the accounts of customers, and had never implied that it would do so. Therefore, he urged those holding domiciliary accounts to carry on with their legitimate forex transactions and disregard claims made against the apex bank with the intention of triggering chaos in the system.
Following the two-day deliberations of the MPC last month, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele announced of the bank’s decision to cease forex sales to BDCs, as he accused BDCs of total disregard for policies introduced by the central bank to safeguard the value of the naira.
“In particular, we have noted with disappointment and great concern that our BDC operators have abandoned the original objectives of their establishment which was to serve retail end users who need $5,000 or less,” he said. “Instead, they have become wholesale dealers dealing in forex to the tune of millions of dollars per transaction, despite the fact that Nigeria is the only country in the world today where a central bank sells dollar directly to BDC operators.”
