By Aanu Olaleye, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured bank customers that it would monitor commercial banks to ensure legitimate Foreign Exchange (FX) demands of customers are met.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, in a statement on Monday dismissed speculations that it planned to convert the foreign exchange in domiciliary accounts of customers into Naira.
The apex bank’s assurances followed Monday’s commencement of its directive to Deposit Money Banks, to sell foreign exchange to customers, for invisibles such as basic travel allowance, PTA, medical and tuition.
Nwanisobi said the CBN had put in place monitoring mechanism to guarantee the seamless sale of FX to customers who supported their requests with relevant documentation.
He said the CBN had also extracted the commitment of the banks, through their Chief Executive Officers, that customers with legitimate requests would not be turned back.
Nwanisobi dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the CBN planned to convert the foreign exchange in the domiciliary accounts of customers into Naira in order to check shortage of Dollars.
According to him, the CBN never planned to tamper with the foreign exchange deposits in the accounts of customers.
He described those making such allegations as criminal speculators whose intention was to create panic in the foreign exchange market.
He said, “At no time did the CBN ever suggest or imply that it would tinker with the foreign exchange deposits of customers.”
He urged operators of domiciliary accounts and other bank customers to go about their legitimate foreign exchange transactions and disregard fictitious stories aimed at pitching them against the bank and triggering chaos in the system.
It will be recalled that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at his post Monetary Policy meeting briefing on July 27, said the CBN would stop the weekly sale of foreign exchange to Bueaux de Change.
The governor said also that deposit money banks would henceforth, sell to customers to meet their foreign exchange needs.
Banks’ Chief Executives had at a meeting, at the weekend affirmed their readiness to meet the foreign exchange demands from genuine Foreign Exchange end-users as directed by the CBN.
Meanwhile Naira at the Investors & Exporters Foreign Exchange (I &EFX) window, the Naira lost by 0.02per cent and 0.01 per cent against the Dollar and Euro closing at N411.50 and N488.06 respectively, it inched up by 0.07per cent printing at N571.21.
At the parallel market, the Naira appreciated by 0.97per cent against the Dollar closing at N512 and by 0.28 per cent against the Pound sterling at N710 but depreciated by 0.33 per cent against the Euro at N600.
Money market rates declined today as both Open Buy Back and Overnight rates decreased by 225basis points and 200 basis points to 5.25 per cent and 5.75 per cent respectively.
“The bond market traded on a somewhat quiet note today although we saw yields generally negative across the curve.
“We witnessed the yields on the 5yr benchmark bond close down by 11bps at 11.74 per cent while the yields on the 7-year and 10-year benchmark bonds traded flat at 12.50 per cent and 12.65 per cent respectively.
“In the near term, we expect market activity to be influenced by liquidity levels and foreign investor participation,” InvestmentOne Research.