Abigail Erhiagboje
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun has disclosed that the country is expecting an inflow of $10bn in Foreign Exchange in the coming weeks.
He stated this in his speech on Monday during a panel session at the Nigeria Economic Summit (NES) held in Abuja.
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According to him, “from the supply of foreign exchange through NNPC, increased production, reduced expenditure, from transactions such as forward sales, from our discussions with sovereign wealth funds, that are ready to invest and provide advanced alongside that investment, there is a line of sight of $10bn worth of exchange in the relatively near future in weeks rather months.”
He also disclosed that President Bola Tinubu has taken measures to deal with the liquidity in the Foreign Exchange market, which is currently very problematic in the country.
Giving some insights into measures the administration has taken to deal with the liquidity crisis in the foreign Exchange, he said, “the market is a liquid, it’s not functioning properly because there’s not enough supply of Foreign Exchange and the various reasons for that…”.
One of the solutions that the President had put on the table, according to him, is the signing of an executive order that effectively and legally allows under forbearance, all the cash that is in the domestic economy to legally come into the formal money supply.
“People would be able to take the cash that they have and put it into the system” he said.
Edun further stated that there was another executive order that allows the domestic issuance of foreign currency instruments, so that people would have incentives to provide the foreign exchange from whatever source into income bearing instruments.
Also, as part of a wider review, he said there would be a revamping of the foreign exchange market and declared his intention of not revealing the step by process of the revamping.
The minister also disclosed that a frequently asked question sheet would be put out in due course.
According to him, “the foreign exchange market will be simplified, will be digitalized and will be reformed, such that all legal and legitimate transactions will fall within the purview of the authorities and in a formal market.
“Anything outside that will be illegal and will be a criminal offence and will be punished, and will be robustly followed up, so that if you want to pay school fees, if you want to pay your health bills, it will be simplified, and you will be able to just provide, perhaps, an identity such as a BVN, NIN and you’ll do your transaction, it will be formal.”
Edun maintained that all these measures will lead to the flow of Forex in the country and restore the confidence that is needed to make the foreign exchange market work efficiently and with a high level of liquidity.
