Nigeria Banks in trouble as Senate uncovers N30 trillion FOREX diversion

By Sunny Anderson Osiebe

Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and Excise Duties, Hope Uzodinma, has stated that its Committee has discovered high level manipulation of foreign exchange to the tune of N30 trillion purchase on behalf of importers by Nigeria Banks.
He revealed this while granting interview to correspondents after his Committee meeting in Abuja, noting that all banks were involved in the purchase of hard currencies on behalf of importers which were never utilized.
The investigation which follows Senate’s nod at the plenary three weeks ago, indicated that ‘FORM M’, designed by the Nigeria Customs and Excise Duties for importation of goods have been used to manipulate foreign exchanges.

“The Committee has discovered that the whooping sum of N30 trillion foreign exchange were purchased from the Central Bank on behalf of importers, but were never utilized,” Uzodinma said.
“We have also discovered that all banks were involved including those that have closed shop, but we’re fused into the existing ones.
Uzodinma added that huge sums of money have been illegally wired out of the country through the manipulative means, a situation he said has led to scarcity of FOREX in the country.

He was optimistic that the investigation and necessary action by the parliament would stem the tide and increase the value of the Naira.

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