the apex bank has no plan to jail Nigerians for keeping dollars in their homes Godwin Emefiele says.

Nigerians have been asked to ignore growing specula­tions that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will prosecute anyone that keeps the United States (US) dollars in their homes.
The CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who ad­dressed several
critical economic issues on Tues­day, said the rumour being spread by some members of the public, was not true.
Emefiele said that the apex bank has no plan to jail Nigerians for keeping dollars in their homes.
He told journalists at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday that there was no provision in Nigeria’s foreign exchange regulations that empowers the CBN to pros­ecute anybody for confiscateing their dollars.
The CBN governor however said that he was aware that the Nigerian Law Reforms Commission (NLRC) was considering the review of the foreign ex­change regulations, which he described as a routine.
According to him: “The NLRC is an agency of gov­ernment that has the respon­sibility of reviewing all laws in the country from time to time, depending on exigen­cies,” but remarked that the CBN had not been contact­ed on the issue.
He added: “I am saying categorically that if we are contacted or whenever it be­comes an issue for discussion, we would suggest and advise against a clause that forbids people from keeping their dollars if they choose to or a law that says people should be jailed for keeping foreign currency.
“Again, there is nothing in our current and extant for­eign currency laws and reg­ulations that says that Ni­gerians will be jailed or that their foreign currencies will be confiscated. I advise peo­ple to please stop listening to rumour mongers.’’
On the risk faced by Nige­rian banks under the current recession, Emefiele said that like banks in other countries, the country’s banks were not immune to the global eco­nomic challenges.
He said: “Normally, in any economy, when there is a slow down or there is even a recession, naturally, finan­cial institutions, particular­ly banks, will face certain risks. That imposes on the regulators a great challenge to ensure that they strength­en their guidelines to ensure that the banks and particu­larly depositors are protected.
“Nigerian banks like oth­er banks in other climes are facing risks but those risks are surmountable. The CBN is doing its best to ensure that these risks do not get to a point where we begin to talk of depositors risking their de­posits,’’ Emefeile stated.
Asked on what meas­ures the apex bank had tak­en to stimulate the economy, Emefiele said that it evolved workable measures and inter­vened in various situations in line with the enabling act to strengthen the banks and boost development of finan­cial activities.
The intervention meas­ures, Emefiele said, were taken to channel funds at low interest rates to the ma­jor sectors of the economy, declaring that there was real growth in the agriculture sec­tor.
source: http://www.thebreakingtimes.com/no-plans-to-arrest-those-hoarding-dollars-at-home-emefiele/