Against the assertion that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was concluding plans to convert the $20 billion found in the domiciliary accounts of private individuals into its naira equivalent, the apex bank says it does not have any intention of converting people’s domiciliary accounts.
“There is no intention to convert people’s domiciliary accounts. We want to make the market open as soon as possible, and not tightening the market further,” Godwin Emefiele, governor, CBN, said while answering questions from journalists after presentation of the Monetary Policy Committee resolution on Tuesday.
Since the past few weeks, there had been insinuations that the $20 billion lying in private individuals’ domiciliary accounts in various commercial banks across Nigeria were idle as revealed by Joseph Nnana, deputy governor, financial system surveillance, CBN, during a meeting with government officials on the 2016 budget.
Read also: How to open a domiciliary account in nigerian banks
Nnana said these domiciliary accounts were one of the reasons the dollar had continued to increase against Nigeria naira, saying though some privileged Nigerians might be behind the continuous rise in dollar against naira, but the CBN was embarking on an aggressive liquidity mop-up to enable the naira regain confidence.
But the CBN governor had made a clarification on that assertion, explaining that the $20 billion in the domiciliary accounts was not idle, saying, “The funds are funding assets on the other side of the balance sheet.”