The House of Representative Committee on Banking and Currency has assured the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, that the enquiries being sought by the National Assembly on its new guidelines on Bureau de Change operation were not intended to question the bank’s authority to regulate the management of foreign exchange in the economy.
The Committee made this clarification during an interactive session with CBN’s top management on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, following the recent review of the capitalization of bureaux change from N10 million to N35 million in addition to other mandatory requirements.
Also speaking at the forum, CBN Governor, Mr. Emefiele stated that the new policy, which entails a minimum capital requirement of N35 million and a mandatory cautionary deposit of N35 million was intended to ensure the emergence of well-capitalised and structured BDC entities in line with global best practices.
He reiterated that the new regulatory requirement was not in any way targeted at operators from any section of the country, since there are operators in all parts of the country.
The CBN boss hinted, however, that there were serious leakages in the country’s foreign exchange reserves necessitating urgent action to plug such leakages. He stated therefore, that the policy was a holistic effort to conserve foreign exchange to achieve exchange rate stability.
He implored the committee members to support the policy to enable the CBN achieve the desired foreign exchange stability and to build up stronger foreign reserves, that will help it manage Nigeria’s economy better.
Responding, the Chairman of the Committee, Jones Onyereri, restated the determination of the committee to give CBN all the support it needs to effectively discharge its mandates.
THE SUN
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