There had been a media report on Saturday alleging plans by the Federal Government to convert foreign exchange in domiciliary accounts
The President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government has dismissed a report that it plans to convert foreign exchange in depositors’ domiciliary accounts to naira, describing it as tantamount to economic sabotage.
There had been a media report on Saturday alleging plans by the Federal Government to convert foreign exchange in domiciliary accounts.
But the Coordinating Minister of Economy, Wale Edun, in a statement on Saturday, said such reports were false and misleading.
According to Edun: “There is no iota of truth in the claims of Punch Newspaper that the Federal Government plans to convert foreign exchange in depositors’ domiciliary accounts to naira.
“The publication of such falsehood at a time when the government is working to restore economic stability and confidence in the national currency is tantamount to economic sabotage.
“This report in the Punch Newspaper violates the standards of responsible journalism.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I emphasise that depositors’ foreign currency in their domiciliary accounts will not be converted to naira.”
Punch had reported that there were strong indications that the Federal Government was mulling a policy that will result in the conversion of foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts of citizens to naira to stabilise the national currency, which earlier this week recorded its worst performance in history.
It had said that if the Nigerian government goes ahead with the plan, the government will order the conversion of foreign currencies sitting idly in individuals’ and corporate organisations’ domiciliary accounts to naira at a rate to be determined by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
According to top Presidency sources, the move is meant to stabilise the naira, which recorded its biggest fall in the official Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market on Monday, depreciating by 24 per cent to close at N1,348 per dollar.
One of the Presidency sources said that the problem of forex scarcity and the naira fall was an elite issue, adding that the Federal Government would not fold its arms and continue to watch some individuals hoarding foreign currencies at the expense of the naira.