The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has frowned at the N425/$ exchange rate presented in an item by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) in its 2022 budget proposal.
Chairman of the committee, James Faleke (APC, Lagos) and some other members made the observation when the AGF, Ahmed Idris, appeared before the committee on Tuesday to present his office’s 2021 budget performance and 2022 budget proposal.
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Faleke said the N425/$ exchange rate was against the approved rate contained in the 2022 Appropriation bill presented by President Muhammadu Buhari which he said was N410 to the dollar.
However, the Accountant-General in an explanation said that the N15 difference was to take care of the transfer and other charges by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which is different from the official exchange rate.
However, the chairman disagreed, saying that there is no justification for the CBN to charge fees on the dollars sent to the AGF’s office account.
The AGF however promised to provide the details of the various fees and charges which warranted the N425 exchange rate proposed in the budget of his office.
Similarly, the AGF while responding to a question on the increase in his office’s personnel cost, explained that his office will start the payment of all finance staff attached to Nigeria’s foreign missions across the world.
