NEWS: Nigerian Senate Rejects Proposal to Jail People For Forex Hoarding

0 KIKI GIST Monday, November 21, 2016

The Nigerian senate today promised to reject the proposed review of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Act in order to allow the federal government jail people who hold dollars in cash.

PUNCH reports that a statement signed by the Chairman, Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, stated that such moves would prevent investors from making free entry and free exit from the market, would suffer outright rejection by the senators.

“The measure is disruptive and counterproductive, threatening to undermine many of the reform efforts already underway in the legislature and by government ministries, intended to boost investor confidence.

“The Senate would never pass such a punitive and regressive proposal. Overall, some of the commission’s recommendation has many sound attributes and could help Nigeria’s investment climate. We believe the CBN should have the authority to regulate the forex market and determine the exchange rate policy, as already enshrined in its enabling Act.

“A market-oriented exchange rate policy is the best recipe for guiding the operations of the foreign exchange market. This will ensure the supremacy of market mechanisms in efficiently allocating the scarce forex resources.”