CBN Reveals How Diversion Of Diaspora Remittances Contributed To Naira’s Recent Freefall

Following the freefall of the naira against the US greenback, the dollar, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has attributed this fall to the diversion of diaspora remittances to the unofficial markets.

Acting Governor of CBN, Folashodun Shonubi, made this known while delivering a Distinguished Personality lecture titled: “Diaspora Remittances and Nigeria Economic Development” for members of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 16 at the National Institute for Security Studies, Abuja.

Shonubi explained that many diaspora remittances came to Nigeria in dollars and were not documented officially, as they end up in the parallel market.

Hear him; “With those remittances, the dollars have come in, we know the dollars have come in but we don’t see them in the official system. So, they must be going somewhere and somewhere.”

“And the challenge with the black market, unofficial market or parallel market or whatever name you want to call it, it is as a result that it is not regulated, and it becomes an easy place to have criminal activities.

“We investigate bankers, not just bankers, anybody who has committed an offence, the first thing they want to do is to run to the black markets, change it to the dollars because it is less money to carry around.

“Some of the funding in the black markets are actually from diaspora remittances. That’s why it important we need to know a lot of what’s going on there. We can’t play the sentiment game.

If we don’t understand the dynamics, we usually go with the literature which does not necessarily work for us.’’