The recent announcement on the renewal of the tenure of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele May have come as a surprise to most importers, particularly those involved in the importation of items tagged ‘not eligible for foreign exchange via the official window’.
Sources at the CBN told Tribune Online said as a result, those caught in the web may have taken the gauntlet to take the fight to the doorsteps of the apex bank by deploying all ammunition in their arsenal to fight against the confirmation by the National Assembly.
At least two allegations have surfaced since Friday alleging that CBN under Emefiele has been involved in some financial improprieties and asked Senate not to confirm him for a second term.
According to the source, “most those in the rice and textile businesses in particular, who have been having sleepless nights over the nationalistic nature of Emefiele are now mobilizing through various means to discredit him.
“Not stopping at that, they have resorted to either to use the courts to scuttle the confirmation process or other means like sponsoring protests, concoction of spurious messages and hacking into official conversations.”
The CBN source, however, insists “as resolute as ever, Emefiele has remained undaunted as he vowed to fight smugglers using the powers enshrined in CBN Act 2007 and BOFIA to regulate the financial system and the economy at large toward higher productivity, employment generation, wealth creation and self-reliance in the nearest future.
Speaking recently in Kastina during the launch of input distribution to cotton farmers for 2019 farming season, driven by a passion for economic rejuvenation, Mr Emefiele reiterates that saboteurs would be blacklisted from assessing financial services from banks operating in the country.
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