Nigerians currently hoarding dollars in the hope of the value skyrocketing, have been promised a long time of lamentations from the heavy losses that are sure to await them as a result of the Federal Government efforts to up the value of the local currency.
This indication came from Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, who is sure that the value of the US Dollar could drop to the pre-2015 period when it exchanged for less than ₦200 against the naira by the time the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), would be through with the policy of redesigning local currency.
He told the Deutsche Welle (DW) Hausa service that President Muhammadu Buhari did well to approve the redesigning, adding that Nigeria was actually behind schedule in carrying out the exercise, which was supposed to be done every eight years.
His words: “The law says the redesigning of Naira notes should be done every eight years but we spent 20 years without any changes on them. And that resulted to 85 per cent of money are in circulation not in banks. When CBN came up with this redesigning, dollar moved to 880 and later dropped to 680 or thereabouts. So you see with this redesigning dollar may massively fall, who knows probably to ₦200.”
Bawa, who said there is no any political motive behind the idea and called on Nigerians to report any person with siphoned monies, added: “There is no political motive in this. Some people siphoned and hid public funds. That is why we want them to bring them out and nobody says they should not bring them. What government says is let them deposit such money in banks.
“We assure Nigerians that we are always ready to receive reports of any person with suspicious hidden money and if investigated to be true, we will give 5 per cent of the money to them.”
