— As Naira Plunges Again After Last Week’s Gains
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has made a projection that the US dollar might drop to N200 after the redesigning of naira.
He said, “The law says the redesigning of Naira notes should be done every eight years but we spent 20 years without any changes on them. And that resulted to 85 per cent of money are in circulation not in banks, when CBN came up with this redesigning, dollar moved to 880 and later dropped to 680 or thereabouts.”
Bawa stated this in an interview with Deutsche Welle (DW) Hausa service, hailing President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the redesigning of 200, 500 and 1000 Naira notes.
Checks by The New Diplomat show that in Lagos and Abuja, early Thursday, the Dollar To Naira Exchange Rate was at 805 in the black market, meaning buyers can buy Dollar at 805, while the selling rate was at 790. This indicates the naira has been depreciating further against the dollar this week after gaining about 26.24 percent last week at the parallel market, trading at 700-710 at some point.
The forex crisis, further impacted by the naira redesign, in recent weeks, has continued to put the Naira under immense pressure, leaving the FX market in a constant state of flux.
But Bawa argued that the rates would crash with the redesigning of naira, a plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria which has elicited controversies and market concerns.
Bawa continued: “So you see with this redesigning dollar may massively fall, who knows probably to ₦200.”
The EFCC chair also said there is no any political motive behind the idea and called on Nigerians to report any person with siphoned monies.
“There is no political motive in this; some people siphoned and hid public funds that is why we want them to bring them out and nobody says they should not bring them, what government says is let them deposit such money in banks.
“We assure Nigerians that we are always ready to receive reports of any person with suspicious hidden money and if investigated to be true, we will give 5 per cent of the money to them,” Bawa said.
The New Diplomat reports that under the CBN arrangements, the new currency will begin circulation from December 15, 2022, after its launch by President Buhari.
Nigeria’s apex bank has said the new and existing currencies shall remain legal tender and circulate together until January 31, 2023, when the existing currencies shall cease to be legal tender in the country.
