easing to N715 on Friday. The volatility in the foreign exchange market was such that the Central Bank of Nigeria had to reassure Nigerians on its resolve to ensure that demandsTo calm the volatility, the director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, Osita Nwanisobi had assured that the apex bank remains committed to resolving the foreign exchange issues confronting the nation and as such, has been working to manage both the demand and supply side challenges.
Nwanisobi, while stating that the report was an attempt to deliberately misrepresent the import of Emefiele’s caution on electioneering spending by the political class, said the warning by the CBN Governor was to those who sought to convert the Naira from their accounts into foreign exchange for election campaign and not those who seek to exchange the currency for legitimate purposes such as payment for tuition and other personal expenses.
“We have our own apparatus through which we monitor movement of funds between customer or between banks and customers or from one bank to another. Any bank that we find in those kind of transactions that we consider to be unauthorized or that we consider to be illegal you can be guaranteed that your account will be placed on PND.
This had spurred a dollar buying spree which in addition to the already high demand overflowing from the official market had caused the value of the naira to decline from N630 to the lowest level of N730 per dollar.