Reps move to regulate forex market

Plan to probe 37 varsities for alleged financial abuses,
contracts, utilisation of funds by medical centres, river basins

The House of Representatives is set to enact a law to restore sanity in the foreign exchange market.

At the plenary yesterday, presided by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the lawmakers referred a bill titled ‘A Bill for an Act to repeal the Foreign Exchange (monitoring and miscellaneous provisions) Act, CA F34, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to the Chukwudi Jones Onyereri-led committee on banking and currency for consideration.

The proposed amendment also seeks to restrict outward cash flow in a manner that no person shall export foreign currency in excess of $50,000 or its equivalent from Nigeria.

Onyereri, who spoke on the general principle of the bill, said that the extant law governing foreign exchange could no longer keep pace with recent development in the market such as round tripping and cross-border movement of large amount of foreign currency.

Besides, the House Committee on Public Accounts yesterday said it had commenced a large-scale investigation into the finances and expenditures of the 37 federal universities nationwide.

The probe, the committee said, is in respect with the level of compliance of the universities with the country’s public service financial regulations.

It also said the decision followed the need of the parliament to act on pending queries by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation since 2014, urging the National Assembly to compel the institutions in question to give reasons for violating the regulations.

Also, the House yesterday began fresh investigations into the activities all Federal Medical Centres and the eleven River Basins nationwide to determine the veracity or otherwise of financial abuses levelled against them by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.