Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says it will stop the sale of dollars to banks.
Emefiele said this on Thursday at a press conference in Abuja after consultation with the Bankers’ Committee.
He also announced the introduction of the bank’s RT200 FX program to boost the country’s foreign exchange inflow through non-oil exports.
The RT200 FX policy stands for the ‘Race To $200billion in FX Repatriation into Nigeria’.
According to reports that when asked about the roles banks will play in the new policy, Emefiele said the banks would support the programme, adding that CBN will end the era of dollar sales by this year.
He said banks should generate export proceeds from exporters to give their customers (importers).
“The era is coming to an end when, because your customers need $100 million in foreign exchange or $200 million, you now want to pack all the dollars and pass it to CBN to give you dollars,” he said.
“It is coming to an end before or by the end of this year. We will tell them don’t come to the Central Bank for foreign exchange again go and generate their export proceeds.
“When those export proceeds come, we will fund them at 5 percent for you, and they will earn rebait. Then you can sell those proceeds to your customers that want 100 million dollars. But to say you will continue to come to the Central Bank to give you dollars, we will stop it.
He said the new policy will be driven by five key anchors, including value-added export facility, non-oil commodities expansion facility, non-oil FX rebate scheme, dedicated non-oil export terminals, and a bi-annual non-oil export summit.
The policy announced by the CBN governor is coming days after he was heavily criticized by Reform Nigeria Now (RNN) for allegedly dishing out policies that are not for the interest of the State.
The RNN group alleged that Emefiele is plotting to increase his political capital in the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), with policies driven by partisan considerations and designed to grant exclusive favours to the governors under the ruling party.
“We frown at this reduction of our CBN into another APC office, in which case states like Benue with the brightest agriculture prospect are consistently overlooked in purported agric-support schemes, while Mr. Emefiele fixes his gaze permanently on APC states with no real prospect, all for partisan benefits”, the group said in its press statement. READ MORE HERE
