A legal luminary, Olisa Agbakoba has made case for the management of the nation’s foreign reserves by Nigerian banks, saying it was high time Nigeria emancipated itself from foreign domin-ance in all the sectors of the economy.

Speaking at the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee probe on management of fuel subsidy in Abuja recently, Agbakoba frowned at a situation where the management of the country’s hard-earned resources was left in the hands of foreign financial institutions was anti-development. He stated further that managing the nation’s revenue would make the banks in the country to grow.

“There is no reason leaving our foreign reserve for foreign financial institutions to manage. What happens to our own banks? How will our banks grow? I will strongly recommend we allow the Nigerian banks to manage our foreign reserve,” he said.

He regretted that the foreign multi-nationals pre-occupation was to make profit and repatriate the funds to their native countries, stressing that in some cases they relied on syndicated loans from Nigerian banks.

Citing an instance with the proposed Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), he noted that foreign portfolio investors had been making enquiries on how to be partakers, submitting that they did not have any good plan for the economy.

He called on the Federal Government to desist from transacting business with foreign firms on their terms, stressing that they did not mean well for the economy.