The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has vowed to resolve the current foreign exchange crises confronting the nation.
A statement by its spokesman Osita Nwanisobi in Abuja on Friday said the CBN is “working to manage both the demand and supply side challenges”.
Nwanisobi said the CBN would “make deliberate efforts in the foreign exchange sector to avert further downward slide in the value of the naira, which he observed is fuelled by speculative tendencies”.
He stated monetary policy alone “could not bear all the burden of the expected adjustments needed to manage the challenges around Nigeria’s foreign exchange. It’s our collective duty as Nigerians to shore up the value of the Naira”.
The monetary authorities, he said “was strategising to help Nigeria earn more stable and sustainable inflows of foreign exchange in the face of dwindling inflows from the oil sector”.
Nwanisobi added that the CBN “was concerned about the international value of the naira”.
He admitted “there was huge demand pressure for foreign exchange to meet the needs of manufacturers as well as those for the payment of tuition, medical fees and other invisibles”.
Specifically, he noted that recent initiatives undertaken by the CBN such as the RT200 FX Programme and the Naira4Dollar rebate scheme have helped to increase foreign exchange inflow to the country.
According to him, the Bank’s records showed that foreign exchange inflow through the RT200 FX Programme in the first and second quarters of 2022 increased significantly to about US$600 million as at June 2022″.
He added that the Naira4Dollar incentive has also increased the volume of Diaspora remittances during the first half of the year.
The CBN advised Nigerians to “resist the urge of succumbing to the speculative activities of some players in the foreign exchange market”.
Reiterating an earlier position of the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Nwanisobi urged Nigerians to “play their role by adjusting their consumption patterns, looking inwards and finding innovative solutions to the country’s challenges”.
