US dollars
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday confirmed what many Nigerians have been grumbling about to the effect that the ongoing forex scarcity owes largely to hoarding of the dollar by a few Nigerians to the detriment of the local economy. CBN Deputy Governor in charge of Financial System and Surveillance, Dr. Joseph Nnana, has disclosed that a few influential Nigerians have a staggering $20 billion, about N4 trillion lying idle in their domiciliary accounts. According to the CBN, this is part of the things that hurt Nigerian economy: idle funds especially in forex.
Dr Nnana, revealed this during an interactive session with the Joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation. But he was optimistic that after the passage of the 2016 budget, those involved in this economic sabotage would regret their action.
He told the session chaired by Senator Danjuma Goje that, “Naira problem is not our own (CBN) making. Some individuals are speculating on the dollars to the detriment of naira.
“Why should we have individuals that have $20 billion in different domiciliary accounts idle? Volatility in exchange will not continue after the passage of the 2016 Budget.
“Those who speculate on naira will have their fingers burnt by that time because we are going to embark on aggressive liquidity mop-up to make the naira stronger.”
But Senator Goje noted that the implementation of the N500 billion intervention fund contained in the 2016 Budget proposal does not appear feasible “since there are no clear implementation strategies”.
According to him, “There is no detailed, clear cut structure being laid down for implementation of this project because what we have in this budget is N300 billion recurrent and N200 billion capital. We had to push hard yesterday to get some details, which is not convincing.
“For instance, the explanation we got is that N5, 000 will be given to one million Nigerians. Who would choose the one million people? What structures do you have in place to make sure that you choose the right people?
“We have not gotten clear explanations to these numerous issues surrounding the implementation of this money. Even the afternoon school feeding contained in the budget is not feasible because some students study under non-conducive environment. Will feeding them enhance their learning?”
Goje suggested that the money be added to the budgetary allocation for sectors like power, transport and health, while those responsible would map out better strategy against 2017. Goje’s suggestion aligns with the thinking of President Muhammadu Buhari who recently made a volte-face on the N5000 social welfare fund for the jobless poor, stressing he would rather plough such money into building infrastructure to create jobs for the jobless.
Senator Goje further assured that the 2016 budget would be passed on March 17, as promised.
