Emefiele berats Soludo and Sanusi over Nigeria's external reserves.

      The current foreign exchange crisis in the country is the fault of Professor Chukwuma Soludo and the Emir of Kano, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
– This is the submission of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele

     Emefiele said the duo adopted measures that resulted in the depletion of the Nigeria’s external reserves CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele on Saturday, September 17, blamed two former governors of the apex bank – Professor Chukwuma Soludo and Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for Nigeria’s foreign exchange crisis. CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele berates his predecessors for squandering Nigeria’s external reserves. According to Emefiele, the current forex crisis would have been averted if the duo had not adopted measures that resulted in the depletion of the country’s foreign reserves. The Nigerian currency has collapsed and output is set to shrink this year for the first time since 1991 after 8 percent-plus growth through the 2000s.

     Professor Soludo was the CBN governor between May 29, 2004 to May 29, 2009 while Sanusi was in office between June 3, 2009 to June 2, 2014. Professor Charles Soludo is reputed to have initiated policies that made Nigerian banks stronger Emefiele told New Telegraph that when both men were at the helm of affairs at the CBN, the price of oil was consistently well above $110 per barrel and Nigeria had healthy reserves that would have allowed it to invest in critical infrastructure that would boost productivity and diversify the economy.
     Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido is reputed to have chased away criminals in the Nigerian banking sector His words: “In September 2008, Nigeria’s FX reserve stood at $62 billion, what did we do with $62 billion? At a time when crude oil price was at about N120 per barrel, what did the country do? What we could have done is save the money. If we couldn’t save the money, invest it in infrastructure, invest in industry; invest them in infrastructure and industry that would grow productivity and
the wealth of our people.

     “But what did we do? “I’ll give you an example. The Central Bank of Nigeria of that time went about licensing class ‘A’, class ‘B’, class ‘C’ bureauxde- change. “For class ‘A’ bureau-dechange, Central Bank was allocating $1 million per week; for class ‘B’ bureau-de-change, Central Bank was allocating $750,000 per week, and for class ‘C’ bureau-de-change, CBN was allocating $500,000 per week to each bureaude- change to the extent that between 2005 when the bank started selling dollar
cash and 2016 January when we stopped it, the CBN had sold dollar cash of up to $66 billion to BDCs.
     “In 11 years, CBN allocated $66 billion, averaging $6 billion per year. If this didn’t happen, we would comfortably be having well over $90 billion in our reserve account today and we will not be struggling to pay our bills today. If we had thought of other ways to utilise our reserves in 2008 when it was as high as $62 billion, perhaps certainly we would not be where we are.”
     Emefiele further revealed that although CBN’s policies at the time encouraged Nigerians to buy shares/securities abroad, there was no record that the dividends and proceeds of sale of the shares were repatriated through the apex bank. His words: “Between 2009 or 2010 and 2014, when we had the crisis, America pumped a lot of money to stimulate the economy, and as a result of pumping that money, some of those funds flowed into emerging markets, including Nigeria.

     “At that time again, Nigeria removed all forms of capital control to encourage the flow of capital into Nigeria. So what happened during that time? In five straight years, we saw crude price at above $105 per barrel for five straight years. “That period, we also saw unhindered flow of capital into emerging market into Nigeria; to the extent that by 2013, we had $23 billion in capital flows into Nigeria. What did we also do? The CBN started encouraging Nigerians to buy shares/ securities abroad.
     “Although the dividends and proceeds of sale of the shares were to be repatriated through the CBN, we do not have any records to show that the dividends and proceeds of share sale were repatriated. People just had all the discretion to transfer funds as they wished; just because we thought we had a lot and didn’t think about a day like today when crude prices will be so low.
     “We should have, at that time, built our reserves. What did we do with our reserves at that time? I repeat those were some of the actions we took as Central Bank that resulted in the situation that we are today.” Meanwhile, S&P Global Ratings has downgraded Nigeria further into junk territory. The ratings comes just as Nigeria prepares to issue its first Eurobond since 2013. The bond is been issued amid low oil prices and severe shortages of foreign-exchange.