General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Dr Peter Eson-Ozo, on Wednesday, commended the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive to banks to publish names of chronic debtors, saying it would strengthen the economy,
Eson-Ozo said in Abuja that the measure would help to strengthen the nation’s economy.
He said that the banks did the correct thing by going ahead to heed the directive of CBN to publish names of the debtors.
He said that it would be inimical to the country’s economic growth for anyone to owe banks millions of naira without paying back.
“I think the banks have done well by publishing the names of debtors because it is not good for anyone to borrow money and not pay back; it endangers the economy,” he said.
The publication of the names of debtors is coming on the heels of the July 31, 2015 deadline set by the apex bank for the debtors to pay up.
The debtors are to be blacklisted and banned from participating in the foreign exchange market, as well as trading in the Nigerian Government Securities market.
Eson-Ozo also said that the banks’ refusal to accept lodgments of’ dollar into domiciliary accounts had both negative and positive effects on the economy.
Bank Domiciliary Account allows customers to maintain accounts in foreign currencies.
These accounts can be funded through travelers checque, lodgment of foreign currency cheque, cash inflows and cash deposits.
Eson-Ozo said that this policy would make the operation and regulation of the foreign exchange transactions in Nigeria difficult and would make it impossible for honest Nigerians to engage in free trade and regulate their personal activities.
On the devaluation of the naira, he said it would have an obvious negative impact on the common man as prices of goods and services would rise.
“Devaluation of the naira is not a good thing to a common man on the street, it makes products and food items like rice, imported clothing materials, and imported cars more expensive.
“It drains the pockets of the common man. We begin to wonder, therefore, whether we are not heading back to the era of import duty licences and regulation of commodity prices,” he said.
