The Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have debunked milling rumour being peddled by some media organisations that there were plans to convert $30 billion domiciliary deposits to Naira as part of measures to solve the foreign exchange (FX) supply shortfall and stabilize the Naira, saying the rumour is baseless.
The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Olawale Edun, in a statement issued on Saturday, said there was no iota of truth in the report.
The minister clarified: “There is no iota of truth in the claims of Punch Newspaper that the Federal Government plans to convert foreign exchange in depositors’ domiciliary accounts to Naira.
“The publication of such falsehood. at a time when the government is working to restore economic stability and confidence in the national currency is tantamount to economic sabotage.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I emphasize that depositors’ foreign currency in their domiciliary accounts will not be converted to Naira”, he added.
This is even as CBN in a post on its official X (formerly Twitter) account the same day described the report as fake.
The apex bank in its post maintained that “no plans to convert $30bn domiciliary deposits to Naira. This news is fake!’’
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications of the CBN, Mrs. Hakama, Sidi-Ali, in a statement also described the news as baseless and aimed at causing panic in the foreign exchange market.
The Director stated: “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a story published by a national newspaper alleging that the Federal Government is considering converting $30 billion domiciliary deposits to Naira.
“This allegation is absolutely false and aims to trigger panic in the foreign exchange market, which the CBN is working assiduously to stabilize, as evidenced by its recent work and policy directions.
“Similar false narratives have been spread on the work of the CBN over the past few months and it is clear that vested interests are determined to sabotage our efforts.
“We want to assure the general public that CBN is working to build confidence and would never do anything to undermine the currency and the economy.
“We, therefore, urge all stakeholders to disregard stories aimed at causing panic in the system and see them clearly for what they are – acts of national sabotage.
“We wish to advise, in the strongest terms, against the peddling of false reports that have the potential to be disruptive to the economy. The Bank is the only designated authority for monetary policy changes and will always advise on any policy change(s) before they are brought into operation.
“The CBN is always open to answer questions about our policies”, Sidi-Ali added.
Some news media reports had earlier alleged the Federal Government was considering a policy that will result in the conversion of foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts of citizens to Naira to stabilise the national currency which, over the past weeks, had been depreciating in value at both the official and parallel FX markets.
