EMEFIELE: CBN WILL KEEP SELLING FX TO BANKS.

According to a top official at the apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria has no imminent intentions to forbid the sale of FX to banks.

This comes in response to allegations from a number of media outlets, which claimed that the central bank intended to halt selling FX to banks before the end of the year. Godwin Emefiele made a statement in response, at the conclusion of the Bankers Committee meeting, which was verbatim reported in several reports.

Following the success of the Road to $200 billion non-oil exports income initiative, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has stated that the apex bank will continue to sell Forex, to banks (RT 200).

While this is going on, the Bankers Committee proposed a minimum of N500 billion to exporters on the Road to $200

At a news conference following the 13th annual Bankers Committee Retreat, with theme “Increasing the Productive Base of the Nigerian Economy and Non-Oil Export Revenues.”

“We highlighted the tremendous progress that has been made because the year before we started the RT 200, the CBN told banks to start sourcing their own FX to meet the needs of their customers and not entirely rely on central bank sources,” Emefiele said. However, given the progress that has been accomplished thus far, $62 million plus $622 million plus $850 million amounts to over $2 billion. We believe that the CBN will continue to assist the market with FX, despite the difficulty, as a result of the positive progress and on the basis of the progress that we have accomplished thus far.

While the banks themselves continue to expand their own non-oil export sources that can earn FX through repatriation, which they can use to meet the requirements of their customers, we will continue to support the market.

The CBN Governor commented on the N500 billion in annual lending to exporters, saying: In order to increase the volume of export repatriations, there is a need to continue supporting our exporters who may need facilities or equipment to bring in order to process their goods and make them high standard so they can qualify for export abroad and earn higher value.

The Bankers Committee consequently determined that the entire banking sector must annually loan at least N500 billion to export-oriented businesses that will produce quantifiable export receipts, non-oil export revenues that will supplement what the CBN is doing.

“The CBN will come up with methods where it would insist that bank A should issue a minimum of X amount in export loans, and obviously the big banks will have to take a bigger portion of this pie,” the statement continued. However, the big banks have contributed greatly to the repatriation that has been visible thus far on RT 200.

This is meant to further encourage export financing and merchandise shipment outside of the country. As a result, export revenue can be generated exponentially. When non-oil export revenues reach a certain level over time, the CBN will no longer be pressurize to obtain dollars to satisfy both the banks' and their clients' import requirements.