Central Bank Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele has said over $20billion is idle in domiciliary account of private individuals at a time when the country is facing foreign exchange crisis.
Emefiele’s comment was made at a session of the joint committee on appropriation of the National Assembly yesterday.
Represented by the Deputy Governor in charge of Financial System Surveillance, Mr. Joseph Nnanna, Emefiele said keeping the huge volume of dollars idle had compounded the forex crisis confronting the country.
“As I’m talking to you, $20billion is in various domiciliary accounts of individuals. Naira is our currency, why are they keeping the foreign currency? From my experience in the international finance, I have never seen a country where its nationals speculate on its currency,” he said.