By Olusegun Lawrence The Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday disclosed that few powerful Nigerians have a whopping $20 billion, about N4 trillion lying idle in their domiciliary accounts.
CBN Deputy Governor in charge of Financial System and Surveillance, Dr. Joseph Nnana, who disclosed this said their decisions to keep such a huge amount in foreign currency, is affecting the Naira.
Dr Nnana, who spoke during an interactive session with the Joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation however, assured that those involved in this economic sabotage would regret their action once the 2016 Budget is passed.
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.”
Speaking, Senator Goje said the implementation of the N500 billion intervention fund contained in the 2016 Budget proposal would not be 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.
He also assured that the 2016 budget would be passed on March 17, as promised.
