Laments Devaluation, depreciation of Naira
Falana in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/476/23, filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, is asking the court to determine amongst others “whether by virtue of Section 16 of the Central Bank Act, the exchange rate of the naira shall be determined, from time to time, by a suitable mechanism devised by the Bank for that purpose?”
A senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has sued the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the ‘dollarisation of the Nigerian economy’.
Falana in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/476/23, filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, is asking the court to determine amongst others “whether by virtue of Section 16 of the Central Bank Act, the exchange rate of the naira shall be determined, from time to time, by a suitable mechanism devised by the Bank for that purpose?”
The human rights lawyer claimed that “the seeming non-performance of the defendant’s statutory obligations culminated in dollarisation of the country’s economy which has, in turn, affected the country’s economy negatively contrary to the objectives of the defendant as enshrined in Section 2 of CBN Act.”
Arise News Television reports that in a 10-paragraph affidavit in support of the Originating Summons deposed to by one Mr. Ayodele Aribisala, Falana argued that the CBN had allowed many landlords in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and other cities in Nigeria for which the apex bank was established to serve to collect rents in dollars.
“The Defendant has refused to stop the collection of school fees and rents in dollars in Nigeria,” he said.
The senior lawyer argued that the dollarisation of the Nigerian economy and the failure to address the multiple exchange rates further pushed the naira to its current fluctuating state.
Falana recalled that in 2015, one dollar was exchanged for N178, but in 2022, it was exchanged for N750. He further argued that the multiple exchange rate regime led to the emergence of different exchange rates in the three major segments of the foreign exchange market namely: the official market, the Investors and
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