CBN: $20bn idle in dom accounts of Nigerians

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says some privileged Nigerians are behind the fall of the naira, adding that $20 billion is being kept idle in some domiciliary accounts in the country.

Joseph Nnana, the deputy governor, financial system surveillance of the CBN, made the revelation on Thursday, assuring Nigerians that these speculators would get their hands burnt.

Speaking at the meeting of the joint appropriation committees of the national assembly, Nnana said the naira would pick up after the passage of the 2016 budget.

“Distinguished chairman sir, we have $20bn lying idle in various domiciliary accounts of many customers at the various banks across the country,” he said.

“This is part of the reasons why the naira has continued to slide against the US dollar. The CBN will embark on aggressive liquidity mop-up to enable the naira regain confidence.

“The CBN will not sit down and watch the consistent fall of the naira. After the passage of the 2016 budget, the naira will begin to bounce back. Those who speculate on dollars will have their fingers burnt.”

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, who also spoke with the committee on the state of the economy, said the balance of the treasury single account (TSA) had risen to N2.9 trillion.

Danjuma Goje, the chairman of the committee, said some of the programmes slated in the 2016 budget are not feasible.

“There is no detailed, clear cut structure laid down for implementation of this project because what we have in this budget is N300 billion recurrent and N200 billion capital,” he said.

“We had to push hard yesterday to get some details which were not convincing. For instance, the explanation we got was that N5, 000 would be given to one million Nigerians.

“Who would choose the one million people, what structures you have in place to make sure that you choose the right people?

“You want to give money to about one million market women or there about and in my place we do not have many market women. How would they choose the market women that would represent all interests?

“We have not got clear explanations to these numerous issues surrounding the implementation of this programme.”

A devaluation of the naira would mean a big pay day for the speculators keeping billions of dollars in their domiciliary accounts.