Govt seeks to address FX shortage by targeting dollars in Nigerians’ hands – Minister, Edun

To address the FX market’s liquidity crisis, the federal government is focusing on foreign exchange outside of the banking industry, according to Minister of Finance Olawale Edun.

During his Tuesday appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Edun made this claim.

He said that Nigerians’ foreign exchange holdings now constitute the nation’s “foreign reserve,” noting that their liquidity amounts to billions of dollars.

“Foreign exchange held by Nigerians in cash outside the banking system is in the billions,” he said.

The minister disclosed that President Bola Tinubu’s executive order will help to “facilitate” this money into the “banking sector.”

“Mr President has authorised an executive order to facilitate the payment of that cash into the banking system,” he said.

Edun also agreed with lawmakers that the tax waiver is costing the country trillions of naira annually without any value.

The deputy chairman of the committee, Saidu Abdulahi, said the country should experiment with scrapping the policy for a year and see what would happen.

The minister agreed with the assertion by the lawmakers that the waiver policy is wasteful, noting that the government should consider tax rebates.