Multiple forex rates driving currency round tripping, deepening fragility—Nzekwe
Former President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Dr Sam Nzekwe has raised an issue of urgent national economic importance, saying the maintenance multiple foreign exchange regimes is driving endless round tripping and soaring the fragility of the economy.
To him, the introduction of the longer-term contract on the naira in a move to attract more foreign inflows, shore up dwindling dollar reserves and stave off currency devaluation, by the Central Bank of Nigeria, are currently promoting hoarding of foreign currencies and distortion in the exchange rate.
Dr Nzekwe averred that the first and only credible effort that must be made now by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is to cancel multiple forex windows and replace same with a uniform rate across board.
He argued that a situation where the official exchange rate was N305 to a dollar and individuals bought at N358 per dollar would continue to breed round tripping and fraudulent activities.
“This multiple window is not healthy at all because somebody will hide under the multiple windows and be feeding fat on it, so they are just unnecessarily creating loopholes to play into.
Continuing, he decried that the prevailing forex policy have continued to breed hoarding of forex as people would want to make abnormal gain, stressing that “We have not really come out of recession because it is only when you are producing that you can say there is economic growth.
“Even the very little you are producing in agriculture is affected because people are not going to the farm because of insecurity.
“In manufacturing, they are not producing well because of electricity, and infrastructure problems. A lot of people are out of work, no job for many graduates. It will compound income, security, social problem.
“Let the economy start working, because the economy is not producing as such,” former chief executive of ANAN maintained.
