Steps have been taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to rescue the Naira and crash black market rate starting from Monday.
Rising from an emergency meeting of the Bankers’ Committee conveyed yesterday by the CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to address growing concerns over the uncontrolled fall of the Naira at the parallel market, members disclosed that banks would, henceforth, be allowed to sell foreign exchange at the official rate to individuals under certain conditions.
According to them, the committee identified that demand for school fees payment and Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) drive the high demand in the black market.
It, consequently, resolved that if CBN is able to meet legitimate needs, exchange rates will automatically come down.
The committee comprises the apex bank’s governor and deputy governors, as well as chief executives of deposit money (commercial) banks.
Friday’s meeting came a day after the National Economic Council expressed concern over the current situation of the exchange rate and called for an urgent review of the forex policy, especially the gap between inter-bank’s and the parallel market’s rates.
A source privy to the resolution of the meeting told Newsmakers that some of the steps approved by the committee include allowing banks to sell PTA on quarterly basis to customers, who are 18 years and above.
Such customers must, however, provide Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC), Form A (the CBN form used for invisible transactions), Bank Verification Number (BVN), Nigerian passport and ticket for a minimum of five hours uninterrupted flight time.
Also for a student studying abroad, application for purchase of foreign exchange to pay school fees must be done through the parent or guardian and must also be backed by the TCC of the applicant.
Also, the amount that can be approved as school fees per term for individual applicants was pegged at a maximum of $15,000 and must be paid directly to the school, backed by valid invoices.
The committee also agreed to discontinue approval for requests for BTA (Business Travel Allowance) on the grounds that those that require it are already entitled to PTA.
To eliminate abuse and ensure transparency, the committee resolved that BVN will be used to eliminate multiple applications.
It also agreed that the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS) should provide Application Programming Interface (API) to enable banks access real-time data on applications and transactions carried out across the network.
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Hope!!! Hope died on the 12th of June 1993 with late Chief MKO Abiola. I am still wondering why the sudden scrambling to rescue a sinking naira? You had a chance to throw in a rope as a life line to rescue naira but deliberately left our dear naira to continue languishing in pains and shame.
Let’s see how naira would be rescued now, which could have not been done a year ago. I guess they said market dictate the value of a currency? We de watch oo.