ACMAN tasks CBN on whistleblower policy
By Philip Clement
President of the Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria (ACMAN) and renowned professor of capital market, Uche Uwaleke, has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria to set up a whistle-blower system to assist in its implementation of recent guidelines and policies, Daily Times gathered.
According to Uwaleke, “Aside from after of COVID-19 interventions through the banking system which requires close monitoring, the financial sector has recently witnessed a number of measures by the CBN designed to stabilize it and possibly insulate it from the negative impact of the pandemic.
“These include the Global Standing Instruction designed in part to reduce the NonPerforming Loans in the banking industry as well as measures that directly impact the liquidity in the forex market.
“In order to contextualize the CBN’s recent measures regarding forex, it is pertinent to realize that the Q2 2020 negative growth in real GDP, high inflation rate, increase in inflation and downturn in virtually all macro indicators are all partly attributed to the scarcity of forex following the collapse in oil price since oil revenue accounts for over 90 per cent forex receipts,” He said the the previous supply situation is exacerbated by spurious demand for forex, activities of speculators and sharp practices.
He listed part of the sharp practices which exert pressure in the forex market as the overinvoicing of products imported into the country due to the activities of middlemen arguing that, requiring banks to raise Form-M only in favour of a supplier as opposed to routing payments for imports through agents will go a long way in reducing the pressure in the forex market especially if the product price verification mechanism the CBN is putting in place is effectively implemented.
Speaking further, the finance Expert urged the CBN not to hesitate to apply sanctions on violators to serve as a torrent.
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According to him, “This is the time for the apex bank to wield the big stick, not mere slap on the wrist, on any Deposit Money Bank that flouts the Form-M order regarding third parties.
“I have not stopped wondering where people who hawk forex in the black market get their hard currencies.
The CBN should devise means of checking roundtripping to ensure that the banks are not diverting forex to the parallel market. Ditto for BDCs especially now that the Bank has announced plans to resume sale of forex to the BDCs.”
