News Investigators/ A Securities and Financial Regulation Law expert, Wunmi Bewaji has hailed the new Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy that prescribes Naira payment for foreign exchange remittance, describing it as a solution to the problem of dollar hoarding.
Bewaji, a former federal lawmaker in a chat with News Investigators, explained that the policy was intended to cure two mischieves.
“For the first time, the directive is now creating a two way traffic exchange regime, whereby people who consume foreign exchange, for example importers, students, tourists and the “Japa” people, medical tourists, property buyers, and people engaging in money laundering, all these people entered the market and purchase foreign exchange whether through the bank or through the Bureau de change,” he said.
Adding that “the only supplier or the biggest supplier of foreign exchange in the market is the government. So when people go the market and access foreign exchange, whether at the Bank or at the Bureau Exchange, and they travel abroad and engage in activities abroad, one would expect that Nigeria as a country should be able to benefit from that enterprise through forex remittances.
“For example, if you travelled abroad, you bought foreign exchange, maybe you pay your school fees, paying thousands of Pounds, thousands of dollars as school fees, which you sourced through the Nigerian market and then you send money home let’s say $5000, $10000, $20,000,” Mr. Bewaji argued.
“We have an Annual Diaspora Remittance in the region of $30billion and I bet you, 95percent of this money are kept outside the official system and this is one of the problems facing the Naira. So this new directives will solve the two problems of: Problem of hoarding of available scarce forex, and would also prevent speculations by the people who hoard the money.
“We are already getting some feelers of some unpatriotic Nigerians who are trying to game or outsmart the system, by saying that they are going to by-pass this IMTO and start using cryptocurrency and that is where the recent lifting of the ban on cryptocurrency is so much laudable. Because Cryptocurrency is now recognized, government can now regulate it and ensure that it is not allowed to undermine the financial system.
“So this is a good step in the right direction as it is done all over the world, if you take dollars to the United Kingdom, you cannot spend dollars in the United Kingdom, you have to go to the bank or go to a currency bureau and change it and be given the legal tender of that particular country. If you take pounds to the United States of America for instance, you go to the bank or currency Bureau and change your pound to dollars. So Nigeria should not be an exemption, this is a right step in the right direction, and within a very short period of time, I am sure we will start seeing the benefits of that,” he added.