Emefiele Tells Senate “No Plans To Confiscate Dollars”

The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele met with the leadership of the National Assembly in a closed door session on Tuesday. After the meeting the Senate posted the following tweets.

Confirmation of the meeting

The Senate now moves into an executive/closed door session with the @cenbank Governor, Emefiele on the depreciation of the Naira.

— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) January 19, 2016

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Progress update

Senate President @bukolasaraki reports progress from the closed door session. He says the Senate interacted with the @cenbank Governor…

— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) January 19, 2016

What they discussed

…on the depreciation of the Naira, the price of the Naira against the Dollar, issues of Bureaux De Change, Imports and Exports…

— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) January 19, 2016

…the diversification of the economy and other matters related.

— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) January 19, 2016

Whilst details of the meeting was yet to be made public at the time of writing this article, Bloomberg did report that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki had confirmed that the Central Bank had no plans to confiscate dollars.

“the central bank has no intention to confiscate dollars”.

What he meant by “confiscate” dollars according to some analyst simply means that they will not be converting your dollar deposits into Naira.

Emefiele was also said to have told reporters that he“explained the reasons for the monetary policies and some of the decisions we took. I’m glad the senators understood,”

The CBN Governor has been under pressure to devalue the naira in the since oil price plummeted below the 2015 budget benchmark and has been under more pressure to devalue now that the oil price is now well below 2016 budget benchmark of $38. The CBN’s monetary policy committee will meet next Monday and Tuesday in its first MPC meeting for the year. Some analysts believe the CBN may finally announce a devaluation on that date.