According to Abdulrasheed Bawa, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the dollar could fall to N200 following the redesign of naira notes.

Bawa stated this in an interview with Deutsche Welle’s Hausa service on Wednesday.

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), revealed on October 26 the idea to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations of the country’s currency in order to manage money supply and assist security agencies in combating illicit financial flows.

Bawa praised President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the re-design of the naira.

Read also: Senate session becomes heated over naira redesign

“The law says the redesigning of naira notes should be done every eight years but we spent 20 years without any changes on them,” Bawa said.

“And that resulted in 85 percent of money in circulation not in banks. When CBN came up with this redesigning, the dollar moved to 880 and later dropped to 680 or thereabouts.

“So, you see with this redesigning, dollar may massively fall, who knows probably to ₦200.”

Bawa also dismissed claims in some quarters that the move was an attempt to cripple opposition parties in Nigeria ahead of the 2023 general elections.

“Is it only the opposition that votes during elections? Everybody votes during elections, and there is no political motive behind this; some people siphoned and hid public funds that is why we want them to bring them out,” he said.

“And nobody says they should not bring them, what the government says is let them deposit such money in banks.”

The EFCC boss urged Nigerians to report anyone with hidden money to the commission, and also promised to a 5 percent reward to whistleblowers.

“We assure Nigerians that we are always ready to receive reports of any person with suspicious hidden money, and if investigated and found to be true, we will give 5 percent of the money to them,” Bawa said.

Meanwhile, as part of its ongoing operation to sanitise the foreign exchange sector, the EFCC recently arrested an alleged currency speculator in Abuja.

YNaija