By John Ikani
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says speculations that the apex bank is considering converting foreign exchange (FX) in the domiciliary accounts of customers to naira, should be ignored.
The assurance became necessary following heightened fears of forex scarcity among Nigerians and consequent significant drop in the value of the naira against the dollar, as CBN announced that it would discontinue sales of FX to Bureau De Change operators (BDCs).
The Bank’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, said that “the CBN never planned to tamper with the foreign exchange deposits in the accounts of customers, insisted that those making such allegations were criminal speculators whose intention was to create panic in the foreign exchange market.”
“At no time did the CBN ever imply that it would tinker with the foreign exchange deposits of customers,” he said.
Nwasinobi urged operators of domiciliary accounts and other members of the banking public to go about their legitimate foreign exchange transactions and disregard fictitious stories aimed at pitching them against the apex bank and triggering chaos in the system.
While noting that the CBN had put in place monitoring mechanism to guarantee the seamless sale of foreign exchange to customers who supported their requests with relevant documentation, Nwasinobi added that the CBN had also extracted the commitment of the banks, through their Chief Executive Officers, that customers with legitimate requests will not be turned back.
