‘Charge in foreign currencies at your peril,’ EFCC dares hotels, schools
Nigeria’s main anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has warned schools, supermarkets, hotels, and others against charging for services in the country in the US dollar or any other foreign currency.
The Chairman of the Commission, Ola Olukoyede, in the latest edition of the agency’s monthly e-magazine, released on Monday, threatened to prosecute anyone found paying in foreign currencies for goods and services instead of using the Naira.
He declared further that anyone paying in foreign currencies for services or goods would be treated as a criminal in accordance with relevant Nigerian laws.
While warning Nigerians to desist from such, he stressed that the commission would go after schools, supermarkets, hotels, estate developers, and business operators that used the dollar for transactions instead of the naira.
The Nigerian government has taken the bull by the horn in its quest to strengthen the Naira against the US dollar following its recent performance in the foreign market.
In recent times, the government cracked down heavily on the activities of the cryptocurrency trading website Binance and also detained its top officials as part of efforts to curb volatility in the forex market.
A presidential spokesman, argued that the activities of the firm will destroy the Nigerian economy if left alone to operate without government intervention.
