Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has backed the plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to redesign some naira notes.
Bawa said the policy may crash the value of the dollar against the naira to about N200.
He stated this on Wednesday in an interview with the Hausa service of Deutsche Welle (DW).
Recall that the governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, had on October 26, announced the plan to redesign the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes of the naira in an attempt to regulate money supply and help security personnel in battling illicit financial flows.
The anti-graft agency boss lauded President Muhammadu Buhari foe backing the naira redesign policy.
Bawa 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 in 85 percent of money in circulation not in banks. When CBN came up with this redesigning, the dollar moved to 880 and later dropped to 680 or thereabouts.
“So, you see with this redesigning, dollar may massively fall, who knows probably to ₦200.”
See Also: Atiku Reveals Plan For Petrol Subsidy
Bawa debunked speculations by some people that the policy was a planned move to stifle opposition parties ahead of the 2023 general elections in the country.
He added, “Is it only the opposition that votes during elections? Everybody votes during elections, and there is no political motive behind 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 the government says is let them deposit such money in banks.”
The EFCC chief promised 5 percent reward to whistleblowers who report any individual that concealed money.
Bawa said, “We assure Nigerians that we are always ready to receive reports of any person with suspicious hidden money, and if investigated and found to be true, we will give 5 percent of the money to them.”
Source: Cable
- Gov Alex Otti Reacts To Tribunal Judgment - October 7, 2023
- Fake Credentials: Soyinka Dares Accusers To Prove Allegations - October 7, 2023
- Ukraine Vow To Shun UEFA Competitions Featuring Russian Teams - September 27, 2023
