Fakoyejo OlalekanPoliticians planning to buy dollar to fund the coming 2023 election have been warned against such action, as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, says forex is being monitored.
Emefiele said it is illegal, and could warrant a clampdown from security agents. His warning comes amid scarcity of dollar in the country. Some Nigerian politicians had allegedly used the US currency to fund their party’s primary election.
According to the central bank chief, “those who want to take naira from their account to buy dollars because of the election. I want to warn not advice that it is illegal to do so.” Emefiele said.
He stated, “Whereas it will sound more convenient to carry dollar because you could carry little dollars but with a lot of value in your pocket, but if the security agencies hold you, you know the implication of that.”
Emefiele threaten operators of illegal forex transaction with PND
The apex bank governor threatened to freeze accounts found involve in illegal transactions of dollar. Note that the CBN has restricted accessing to foreign currencies to maintenance and upkeep of Nigerians schooling abroad, as well as personal and business travel expenses.
Hence, transacting dollar for political purposes is illegal, and Emefiele stated that Post No Debit (PND) will be placed on accounts caught in the act. This will restrict the account holder from withdrawing or receiving money into the account.
“We will continue from our own side to use our own apparatus through which we monitor movement of funds between customers or between banks and customers or from one bank to the other bank and any bank that we find in those form of transactions will be considered to be unauthorized or we considered to be illegal you can consider that your account will be placed on PND (Post No Debit).”
He further warned that CBN has become a monster with an injurious tool to curb illegal forex transactions, “You can see CBN has turned itself into a monster that uses an injurious tool to stop you from conducting illegal flows whether domestic or foreign currency.
“So, I will advice you not to get involved in unauthorized and illegal movement of money from your bank to your account or from one account to another account, or a currency conversion. When you do that and you are caught in that practice your account will be placed on PND.” Emefiele said.
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