The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun has passed a salient message to currency black marketers that their time would soon be up.
she further argued that the effect of the Treasury Single Account in the short term was bad, “but in the long run, it is going to benefit the economy,” noting that it was also an opportunity for the commercial banks to do the real business of banking.
She made this known when she appaeared before the expanded joint committee of the House of Representatives alongside the minister of of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma.
She informed the lawmakers that “the black market would soon collapse because it is not driven by any fundamentals and is a very misleading market. The craze for dollars is not driven by any rational consideration and it will soon collapse.”
According to her, the nation’s currency is valued at between N305 and N315 but the unnecessary demand for dollar was pushing people to buy it at higher rates.
She said: “We are dealing with a shortage of dollars but the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has put in place measures to stimulate more supply of dollars.”
Also speaking on the efforts being made to address dollar shortage, a representative of the deputy governor of CBN, Mr. Moses Tule, said the apex bank was increasing exports to earn more dollars, adding that they are equally trying to reduce demand for foreign exchange.
