The Central Bank of Nigeria said on Saturday it has no plans to convert holdings in domiciliary accounts into Naira, explaining that the story making the rounds on social media was fake.

 

“We wish to reiterate that the Bank has not contemplated, and will never contemplate, any such line of action. The speculation is a completely false narrative aimed at triggering panic in the foreign exchange market,” CBN said.

 

This was contained in a statement issued by Osita Nwanisobi, CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications.

 

Nwanisobi said the attention of the central bank had been drawn to a fake circulation, in social media circles, of a circular with a fake CBN logo curiously dated “13 September 2021”, and purportedly issued by its Trade and Exchange Department to the effect that all Deposit Money Banks, International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) and members of the public are to convert domiciliary account holdings into naira.

 

The CBN said it had previously assured members of the public that there was no plan whatsoever to convert the foreign exchange in the domiciliary accounts of customers into Naira in order to check purported shortage of availability of the United States dollars.

 

It advised operators of domiciliary accounts and other members of the banking public to completely disregard these fictitious documents and malicious rumors, and go about their legitimate foreign exchange transactions, because such rumors are only aimed at impugning the integrity of the CBN and activating chaos in the system.

 

The public should also note that any circular issued by the CBN is posted on its website (www.cbn.gov.ng) for the attention of the general public, it further explained.