Contrary to the claim of zero-dollar remittance into Nigeria’s foreign reserve by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, the national oil company had in the first six months of 2022 swelled CBN account with $2.7 billion.
Investigations by Persecondnews reveal that CBN Governore Emefiele’s blame of NNPC Ltd for its woes and failings at the apex bank is nothing but crass negligence and being economic with the truth on his part.
Emefiele had tried to jab NNPC for the crisis being experienced by the Naira for what he called non-remittances by the company.
The Naira has in the past months plummeted to an all-time low of about N730 to a dollar in the parallel market and the inflation rate at about 18 percent with Emefiele in panic mode, blaming stakeholders for his incapacities and flip-flop policies.
Persecondnews reports that the media is awash with a recall in 2018 of the CBN Governor’s blame game, hinging the declining value of the Naira on what he called “huge appetite’’ of Nigerians for importation of luxury goods.
Emefiele had banned importation of 41 items which he considered to be eating up foreign exchange.
Again in July 2021, he came down hard on Bureau de Change operators, saying their “illegal’’ forex trading has had negative impact on the nation’s currency.
Persecondnews also recalls that in a media hype, the CBN governor had in September 2021 banned Aboki FX, blaming it for the naira depreciation with a threat to arrest the brain behind the forex website for “speculative’’ exchange rate.
In 2022, Emefiele blamed the loss of value of the Naira on activities on money laundering, terrorism financing and the political class for “mopping up’’ U.S. dollars and UK pounds in the financial system for elections and his latest `victim ’being the NNPC Ltd.
In a report titled,“The forex question in Nigeria: Fact sheet”, the apex bank had frontally heaped the blame on the free fall of the Naira against other foreign currencies on the NNPC Ltd, stating “domestically, there has been zero-dollar remittance to the country’s foreign reserve by the NNPC.”
But records sighted by Persecondnews revealed that the sum of $18,770,418.97 was remitted into the NNPC account with CBN in January, while February, and March had inflows of $194, 563, 276. 49 and $373, 232,875.20 respectively.
Also for April, the inflow into the NNPC’s account stood at $247,884,295.52, while in May it paid $591, 565, 425. 41 and June $880, 906, 761.81.
Out of the $2.7 billion remittance into the NNPC account with the CBN, the sum of $645m was for dividend paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company Ltd, while $1.786bn was remitted from the operational activities of the NNPC Ltd.
Meanwhile, the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) had on Sunday slammed the CBN Governor for sabotaging the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s economic policies.
Persecondnews reported that the Council’s President, Comrade Solomon Adodo, had called for the sacking of Emefiele for “non-performance and poor economic policies’’which he said had pushed millions of Nigerians into abject poverty.
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