The Department of State Services (DSS) has opened wide-ranging investigations into foreign exchange (forex) received and their subsequent allocation to customers by each deposit money bank in the country, and the involvement of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN).
The investigation comes at a time of increasing searchlight on the governor of the apex bank, Godwin Emefiele, who just returned from overseas after reports that he will be arrested by the secret police in connection with allegations of funding terrorism.
According to reports, the bank CEOs have been given a deadline of tomorrow, Wednesday, to provide detailed information about the privileged individuals and companies that have been given foreign exchange allocations since 2017.
Specifically, the CEOs are to provide a schedule of the Import & Export (I & E) forex allocated to the individual banks from 2017 to date. The said schedule, it was gathered, should be broken down into the amount allocated to the bank, the name of the individual customer and/or beneficiary/beneficiaries, and the basis/criteria for the allocation.
The bank CEOs must also say who authorised and who carried out the allocation; whether it is the CBN and/or the deposit money bank itself. They are also to provide a summary of the Top 50 customers who received the most Forex allocation, in order of magnitude.
Emefiele, who has been away from his office since December, and reportedly just returned to the country, has been at the receiving end of attacks for some years over his unorthodox monetary policies and is blamed for the virtual ruin of the local currency.
