Emefiele: Why some sectors must get forex priority

The Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] is doing its best to manage the country’s scarce foreign exchange and it must give priority in foreign exchange allocations to importers of industrial raw materials, plants and equipment as well as agricultural inputs, its Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele said in Abuja yesterday. He was apparently reacting to criticism […]

The Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] is doing its best to manage the country’s scarce foreign exchange and it must give priority in foreign exchange allocations to importers of industrial raw materials, plants and equipment as well as agricultural inputs, its Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele said in Abuja yesterday. He was apparently reacting to criticism from Stanbic IBTC Chairman Atedo Peterside who said CBN’s efforts to control the naira’s exchange rate against the dollar has failed.

Speaking at the 14th Daily Trust Annual Dialogue, Emefiele said the recent policies by the apex bank were put in place to help Nigeria pull through the hard times as against the insinuation in some quarters of creating hardships. 

He said the country found itself in the present situation due to lack of appropriate commitment to economic diversification, especially when the earnings from oil were as high as $140 per barrel, just as he noted that earnings of the country’s earnings from oil had risen to a height of $3.2 billion in 2013 and fell to about $500m per month recently. 

According to the apex bank Governor, there was also a time when crude oil prices stabilized at $105 per barrel over a period of five years.  “What did we do with the huge accretion to the reserves then?” he queried. Mr. Emefiele therefore counseled CBN’s critics and critics of government policies that “priority will be given to Nigerian masses by managing the limited resources to provide for industrial raw materials, plants and equipment and agricultural inputs in order to create employment and generate wealth.”    

The CBN Governor explained “that policy makers don’t make policies in isolation or designed to hurt the citizenry but with the objectives to improve the life of all concerned not just for a few powerful and rich individuals.”