Chimara BygoldThe average daily foreign exchange (Forex) turnover at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window is now over $250million, up from $40million in April 2020, representing a $210million increase.
Meanwhile, records from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) show that the naira has remained largely stable around N411/US$1 at the I&E window, particularly since the discontinuation of Forex allocation to Bureau De Change operators along with the convergence between the CBN and NAFEX rates.
According to a CBN document, banks are now able to meet the demands of their customers seeking forex for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), school fees, medical and PTAs, thereby reducing the need for customers to rely on alternative providers of foreign exchange.
Meanwhile, Governor Godwin Emefiele, over the weekend, said due to the bank’s demand management policy, in addition, to support from the successful issuance of the $4billion Eurobond and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Right (SDR), the country’s external reserves currently stand at over $41.4billion, enough to support nine months of imports.
“This is not just a morale booster for both foreign direct and portfolio investors willing to invest in the economy, but it provides significant firepower to support our domestic industries that need to import critical machines and equipment for domestic production and exports,” he emphasized.
He also expressed concern that Nigeria’s economic growth remains fragile, as “our unemployment and inflation rate remain at levels that are not very supportive of growth.”
According to him, continued implementation of CBN’s intervention efforts would need to be undertaken to sustain the recovery efforts and stimulate further growth of the economy.
“Given the population growth at about 2.7 percent annually, it is important that we continue to deploy measures that will enable our economy to attain annual growth rates of over 5 percent,” Emefiele said at a bankers dinner in Lagos.
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