CBN Warns Again, Orders Nigerians to Desist From Converting Naira to Dollar

Following the initial warning issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Nigerians to stop converting Naira to Dollar, the apex bank has once again warned bank clients sternly to desist from converting Naira for dollars, most especially politicians.

According to the Governor of the central bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, such acts violate the foreign exchange policy guidelines.

Emefiele, who spoke after the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, further stated that any customer found guilty of violating the guidelines, the CBN would impose a “Post No Debit” (PND) on the account(s).

This means that with PND, such customers will never be able to conduct banking transactions in any of the financial systems in Nigeria.

In his words, “As far as we are concerned, we monitor liquidity in the subsystem. We will use our powers to mop up cash for those taking money from banks to buy Dollars.

“It is illegal to do so. If the security agencies hold you, you will know the implication of that.

“We are monitoring customers and banks, any banks involved will be sanctioned.

“We will place Post no Debit on the defaulting customer’s account. It is a very injurious tool to stop you from conducting illegal flows, either domestic or foreign currency.

“We will conduct investigations, and we will have proof that you will not be able to conduct transactions in any Nigerian bank.”

Such warning from the Central Bank became more necessary due to the huge volatility of the Naira that forces people to illegally convert it to dollars.

Also with the preparations for the upcoming 2023 Presidential election in top gear, it is believed that a lot of politicians in Nigeria seek to mop up FX from the system by stacking up dollars for electoral purposes which will no doubt cause the Naira to lose its value as the CBN has warned them to desist from doing so.

It should be recalled that Investors King on September 16, 2021 reported that the CBN had directed deposit money banks to freeze all the bank accounts associated with AbokiFX for publishing foreign exchange rates other than the rates determined by the CBN, blaming the platform for the deterioration of the naira against the dollar.

Despite the ban enforced on foreign exchange update platform, Aboki FX, and the eventual stopaged of foreign exchange rate updates by the platform, the Naira has plunged to a new all-time low of $1/N735 on the parallel market, down from about N585.