President Muhammadu
Buhari has said the Bureau de Change business has become a scam of recent with
the connivance of some Central Bank officials.
Daily
Trust report continues:
“I
understand some CBN directors are helping the BDCs through the back door,”
adding that this had resulted into a drain on the nation’s economy.
He
also noted that the revelation coming out of the arms deal is just a tip of the
iceberg saying it is only one aspect in the Office of the National Security
Adviser.
“We
have not come to the NNPC, and the Customs is also there,” he added.
He
rejected suggestions that the Central Bank of Nigeria should resume the sale of
foreign exchange to Bureaux de Change (BDCs).
The
President spoke Wednesday night during a meeting with Nigerians resident in
Nairobi, Kenya, according to a statement by his media aide, Garba Shehu.
Buhari
also said about a third of petroleum subsidy payments under the previous administration
was bogus.
“They
just stamped papers and collected our foreign exchange,” he said.
The
Central Bank recently stopped the sale of foreign currencies to the bureaux
when the price of crude oil and the value of the naira dipped to a record low.
Buhari said some bank and government officials used surrogates to run the BDCs
and prosper at public expense by obtaining foreign exchange at official rates and
selling it at higher rates.
“We
had just 74 of the bureaux in 2005, now they have grown to about 2,800.
“We will use our foreign exchange for industry, spare parts and the development of needed infrastructure. We don’t have the dollars to give to the BDCs.
“We will use our foreign exchange for industry, spare parts and the development of needed infrastructure. We don’t have the dollars to give to the BDCs.
“Let
them go and get it from wherever they can, other than the Central Bank”, Buhari
was quoted as telling the gathering.
President
Buhari again rejected the call to devalue the naira, as to do so, he said, was
to kill the Nigerian currency.
Buhari
said he was yet to be convinced that Nigeria and its people would derive any
tangible benefit from an official devaluation of the naira.
He
noted that export-driven economies could benefit from currency devaluation, but
that doing so in import-dependent economy such as Nigeria’s would only lead to
further inflation and hardship for the poor and middle class.
He
said he had no intention of bringing further hardship on the nation’s poor who
have already suffered enough.
Buhari
said proponents of devaluation would have to work much harder to convince him
that ordinary Nigerians would gain anything from it.
He
appealed to Nigerians studying abroad to bear with his administration as it
strives to address the challenges they were facing as a result of new foreign
exchange measures.
The President said he was
optimistic that the Nigerian economy would stabilize soon with the efficient
implementation of measures and policies introduced by his government.
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