Naira speculators will soon burn their fingers, says CBN deputy governor

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Financial Sector Stability, Dr. Okwu Joseph Nnanna, yesterday said that ongoing speculative attack on the naira exchange rate will soon fizzle out.

Nnanna expressed optimism that speculators will have their fingers burnt.

He made the assertion at a joint Appropriation Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, which sat yesterday to harmonise views and to engage various organs of government on the 2016 Budget.

He noted that as soon as the 2016 Budget is passed, the CBN would engage in extensive liquidity management that would put an end to the current volatility of the  exchange rate.

Also fielding questions from the members of the Committee, CBN’s Deputy Governor, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, who represented the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, told the Committee that the Bank Verification Number (BVN) registration was still ongoing.

He said that members of the public still have opportunity to register to have access to their bank accounts.

Explaining the reason for the alleged high interest by commercial banks, Barau said that the level of inflation determines the level at which banks would set lending rates.

He noted that the practice all over the world remained that lending rate would always be set above the inflationary rate.

The apex bank, he said, had to embark on its real sector intervention programmes in order to accommodate marginal players such as the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as part of measures to grow the economy.