Acting CBN Governor, Shonubi Reveals Why Naira Has Been Falling

Folashodun Shonubi, the acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has blamed the continuous of fall of Naira against Dollars on unofficial diaspora remittances.

He disclosed this on Thursday, 10th of August ,2023 while presenting a Distinguished Personality lecture titled: “Diaspora Remittances and Nigeria Economic Development” at the National Institute for Security Studies, Abuja, for members of Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 16.

The Apex bank of Nigerian acting Governor claimed that many diaspora remittances which come in Dollars are not recorded officially before moving to black or parallel markets.

According to him,

“With those remittances, the dollars have come in, we know the dollars have come in but we don’t see them in the official system. So, they must be going somewhere and somewhere.

“And the challenge with the black market, unofficial market or parallel market or whatever name you want to call it, it is as a result that it is not regulated, and it becomes an easy place to have criminal activities.

“We investigate bankers, not just bankers, anybody who has committed an offence, the first thing they want to do is to run to the black markets, change it to the dollars because it is less money to carry around.

“Some of the funding in the black markets are actually from diaspora remittances. That’s why it important we need to know a lot of what’s going on there. We can’t play the sentiment game. If we don’t understand the dynamics, we usually go with the literature which does not necessarily work for us.”

Shonubi who also said that many countries have remittances as the major source of dollars or income, added that it would be helpful if measures can be put in place to control illegal remittances and identify these channels so as to ensure remittance flows into the proper channels, and harness maximum benefits to grow the economy.

He continued;

“We have countries that earn about 1.5 million dollars in remittances. Everywhere, any place you go even in developed countries such as India, China among others.” [CONTINUE READING HERE]>>>