Pragmatic initiatives taken by the central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to commence sectoral foreign exchange interventions may have started yielding positive results by way of stabilizing the exchange of the Naira against the major currencies and greenback in particular.
The effect of this initiative was easily noticed over the weekend as those operating in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment of the economy heaved a sigh of relief as they were not only granted special consideration for $20,000 to import essential but eligible raw materials and finished goods critical to their operations, a special form X was also unveiled to ease their access to foreign exchange.
When contacted for comments on this development apex Bank spokesman , Isaac Okorafor, noted that the Bank put in place the measures to ease the difficulties encountered by small manufacturers adding that the Manufacturers Associatn of Nigeria (MAN) while acknowledging that the earlier “60% FX allocation has raised their capacity, also canvassed for more dollars to be made available for real sector players in the small-medium-scale category.”
According to Mr Okorafor, the CBN examined this request and found out that those categories of industrialists were being crowded out of the foreign exchange market and therefore took steps to address their challenges.
On how this has affected the Naira exchange rate, Mr okorafor stated that genuine SME operators no longer have to patronize or source foreign through unofficial windows hence, no more pressure on either the BDCs or any other unofficial sources with the opening of the special window.
He therefore, urged all participants in foreign exchange market to corporate with the CBN and abide by the regulatory guidelines in order to hitch-free operations in the market.
It would be recalled that not only the SMEs had had grace of the special intervention, the BDC segment of the market had earlier been considered for a special sales of $20,000 per week to enable them cater for the low end user for invisibles like the tuition fee, medical and personal/business travel allowance as against the earlier approved $10,000 per week for each BDC.
