A peacebuilding think tank, Foundation for Peace Professionals also known as PeacePro has called for clamp down on embassies, foreign entities and businesses demanding dollars for transactions in Nigeria.
PeacePro also said that the Central Bank of Nigeria should introduce policy to make it mandatory for banks to only give foreign currency equivalent in naira.
An Executive Director of PeacePro, Mr Abdulrazaq Hamzat while reacting to the increasing price of dollars said that, the indescriminate use of dollars by regular entities in Nigeria has made it impossible to stability currency exchange.
Hamzat states that, transactions in foreign currency has become a regular thing in Nigeria, not only for business purposes, but also in social circle.
“Several embassies including AU countries, European countries aswell as UK, foreign entities and businesses had made it mandatory for people to transact with them only in foreign currency, thereby making need for foreign currency high and putting pressure on the naira ”
“We have also seen foreign currency being used in social events across Nigeria and this is only going to aggravate the situation”
Proposing a way out of the situation, Hamzat explained that, the current situation calls for drastic measures, particularly in the banking system, through which foreign currency get to the hand of people.
According to him, Central Bank of Nigeria should make it a priority to stop banks from giving people foreign currency in cash.
“The law doesn’t allow transactions in foreign currency in Nigeria and banks should only be allowed to give equivalent of foreign currency in naira “.
“If we follow the law, there’s nothing anyone would do with foreign cash in Nigeria other than hoarding it and it is only reasonable to give them naira equivalent or the money should remain in their account for electronics transactions”.
He concluded that, this proposal may seems harsh, but it is needed to arrest the current situation before things go out of hand.
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