…dismisses claims of Jail terms of offenders
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has dismissed claims of Confiscating Domiciliary account and meting Jail terms on individuals keeping Foreign Currencies
for a certain period of time.
The Governor of Central bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, made this known after the press brief on the outcome of the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting for 2016.
He noted that no law in the foreign exchange regulation states that individuals should be jailed or Dollars confiscated for keeping FX in their houses or deposited in Domiciliary accounts”.
The CBN Boss said that the Nigerian law reform commission is looking at reviewing the exchange regulations just like they do from time to time. According to him, “the Law reform commission has the license for reviewing all laws in the country depending on the exigencies of time”.
“We have not been contacted regarding whether or not some of this clauses that are involved are included in the review that is been conducted by the Law reform commission, I am saying categorically that if we are contacted or whenever it becomes a subject of discussion, we would advise against the clause that forbids people from keeping their dollars if they choose to or, a law that says that people should be jailed for keeping foreign currencies”. He advised the general public to stop listening to rumors and go about their various businesses.
speaking on the risk facing Nigerian banking system, Emefiele noted that, as a result of the current challenges been faced by the global economy all agents in the financial system are facing tremendous risk, he stated that, “normally in a global economy when there is a slow down or during recession, naturally financial institutions particularly bank will face certain risk, this poses on the regulator a great challenge to ensure that the banks particularly the banks and depositors are protected”.
The CBN Boss made it known that Nigerian banks are facing risks and those risks are surmountable and the CBN is doing its best to ensure that those risk don’t brutalize to a point where we begin to talk about depositors risking their deposits”, he said.
Emefiele also noted that the crackdown on BDCs comes as a result of the foreign exchange regulation in Nigeria forbids trafficking of currency, the emphasized that security agents have the right to enforce the laws.
According to him, “for as long as the law says you cannot traffic currencies on the street, you supposed to be in your offices, conduct your business and you have to adhere to that, failure to do so the security agencies will arrest you”. BDCs are illegal foreign exchange so we don’t consider in our own analysis people who what to go underground and conduct illegitimate business, he said.
We believe that everyone is entitled once the revelation is set, they don’t need to preclude you for certain conditions, regulator to put in place policies that limits entry or extricate exit from the market.
Also speaking the on the role of CBN to stimulate the economy he reiterated that the CBN has played its role, outing in clear measures that are meant to entertain and stimulate the economy. His words, “CBN is involved in various form of interventions in line with the enabling act that allows it to conduct development finance activities”.
He noted that CBN so far has introduced the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme, the Nigeria Incentive risk among others, and all these are meant to channel financial or intervention fund at low interest rate to sectors that central bank of Nigeria feels need priority attention to benefit the economy and its people.
Emefiele said that, “Growth is accelerating particularly in the agricultural sector, he noted that the CBN so far has been encouraged to do more so as to improve agricultural activity and ultimately lead to motivation in prices in agricultural produce”, he said.