The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied a report that it plans to convert $30 billion domiciliary deposits to naira.
According a Punch report, a source at the Villa had said that the federal government is mulling a policy that will result in the conversion of foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts of Nigerians to naira.
Going by this new plan, the federal government will order the conversion of foreign currencies sitting idly in individuals’ and corporate organisations’ domiciliary accounts to naira at a rate to be determined by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to a top Presidency source, the move is meant to stabilise the naira, which recorded its biggest fall in the official Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market on Monday.
The source noted that the problem of forex scarcity and the naira fall was an elite issue, adding that the Federal Government would not fold its arms and continue to watch some individuals hoarding foreign currencies at the expense of the naira.
But in a tweet on Saturday morning, the CBN dismissed the report.
It said: “No plans to convert $30bn domiciliary deposits to naira. This news is fake!”
Politics Nigeria reports that the naira has experienced its worst performance in history this week, depreciating to as low as N1,500 per dollar.
