The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has stated that the decision to redesign the naira is aimed at forcing out hidden public funds.
Bawa made this statement in an interview with Deutsche Welle DW Hausa Service, that the government wanted people who had hidden funds to bring them out and deposit them in banks.
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“The redesigning of the naira in law is expected to be done after every eight years; Nigeria has 20 years without redesigning, almost 80% of the naira is not in the bank and the CBN is in the hands of people; so how can the government succeed? How can a country get 25% of foreign exchange which is a benefit from its currency in 10 days?
According to him the move by the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN has no political undertone.
“There is no political motive behind this; some people siphoned and hid public funds and that is why we want them to bring them out.
He stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had evaluated and accepted the Central Bank of Nigeria’s advice on the redesign of the naira.
He said, “These public funds were embezzled and we want them to return them; we have not told anyone not to bring this money out. What the government said was to deposit the money into bank accounts, or else sanctions may follow.
Read Also: Naira Redesign: Banks To Accept Deposits Beyond Cashless Policy Limit – CBN
According to the EFCC boss, when the issue of the redesign of the naira came up, the dollar rose to N880, but later crashed to N680.
“It is just a mirage and maybe with this, the dollar may crash completely to even N200, who knows?” he added.
