CBN’s ‘shocking’ revelation: Some powerful Nigerians have $20b lying idle in domiciliary accounts

A shocking revelation was made on Thursday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Some powerful Nigerians have $20 billion (N4 trillion) lying idle in domiciliary accounts, a decision which is affecting the value of the naira.
But the CBN Deputy Governor (Financial System and Surveillance), Dr. Joseph Nnana, said all the Nigerians involved in this economic sabotage would regret their action once the 2016 Budget is passed.
He spoke during an interactive session organised by the Joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation with government officials.
The session was chaired by Senator Danjuma Goje.
Nnana said: “Naira problem is not our own (CBN) making. Some individuals are speculating on the dollars to the detriment of naira. Why should we have individuals that have $20 billion in different domiciliary accounts idle? Volatility in exchange will not continue after the passage of the 2016 Budget.
“Those who speculate on naira will have their fingers burnt by that time because we are going to embark on aggressive liquidity mop-up to make the naira stronger.”
Goje, who said the budget would be passed on March 17, declared that the implementation of the N500 billion intervention fund contained in the 2016 Budget proposal would not be feasible “since there are no clear implementation strategies”.
“There is no detailed, clear cut structure being laid down for implementation of this project because what we have in this budget is N300 billion Recurrent and N200 billion Capital.‎ We had to push hard yesterday to get some details, which is not convincing.
“For instance, the explanation we got is that N5,000 will be given to one million Nigerians. Who would choose the one million people? What structures do you have in place to make sure that you choose the right people.?
“You want to give money – N5,000 – to about one million market women or thereabout and in my place, we do not have many market women. So, how would you choose the market women to represent all interests?
“We have not gotten clear explanations to these numerous issues surrounding the implementation of this money.‎ Even the afternoon school feeding contained in the budget is not feasible because some students study under non-conducive environment. Will feeding them enhance their learning?”
Goje suggested that the money be added to the budgetary allocation for sectors like power, transport and health, while those responsible would map out better strategy against 2017.
He said: “We are all happy with the programme and I am a party man to the core, but what needs to be done needs to be done very well. I think there is a need to do a greater work on implementation, otherwise this money will go down the drain.
“We support this programme. We want Mr. President to succeed. We want our party to succeed. We want to continue to win this election but we want the programme to be successful. So, Mr. Minister, we want you to come up with workable implementation strategy, otherwise there are so many things that require attention in this country. We would rather use this money to solve our problem. Use this year to do very sound ground work for implementation so that the programme can take off next year.”