Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has urged the Nigerian business community to insist on conducting business transactions in naira, including paying for goods imported from China. 

 

Falana recalled that five years ago, the Federal Government and China entered a currency exchange agreement valued at RMB 16 billion or N720 billion. The agreement aimed to provide adequate local currency liquidity to Nigerian and Chinese industrialists and other businesses, reducing difficulties encountered in the search for the United States Dollar. 

 

The swap was also designed to improve the speed, convenience, and volume of transactions between the two countries.

 

Falana, in his statement released titled “Nigerians Should Insist On Transacting Business With Chinese People In Naira,” said, “International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which superintend the Central Bank of Nigeria, have colluded with the Central Bank of Nigeria to frustrate the currency swap.

 

 “The purpose of the economic sabotage is to promote the dominance of the United States Dollar in Nigeria. Hence, the federal government, state governments, and the business community have been prevented from transacting business in Naira and Yuan.”

 

“Thus, by compelling Nigerians to pay dollars for goods imported from China, the Central Bank has continued to promote the unwarranted dollarisation of the Nigerian economy..” 

 

He also noted that he recently wrote to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) using the Freedom of Information Act to confirm the status of the currency swap agreement between Nigeria and China. 

 

The CBN does not allow Nigerians to transact business in China by paying naira despite confirmation that the agreement is still valid and subsisting. This situation necessitated his call for Nigerian businesses to insist on transacting business in naira, including payment for goods imported from China.