CBN refuses to devalue Naira, plans PAVE

Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr.
Goodwin Emefiele has restated that the CBN will not devalue
the Naira anytime soon to revive the falling economy.
He said that the Bank has had to depreciate the currency
from N155 to N197 in February, recalling that even President
Mohammdu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had
also re-echoed the position of the CBN.
Emefiele however stated that the CBN would soon launch a
policy called PAVE meaning “Produce locally, add value and
export your product and earn your foreign exchange for your
imports” to help local industries.
He spoke to State House Correspondents after a meeting on
the economy with the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the
presidential villa on Friday.
He said: “There has been a lot of talk on whether or not we
want to depreciate our currency again.
The truth is that we had adjusted the currency by
depreciating it from N155 to N197 in February this
year.There is no intention to depreciate or adjust the
currency any longer.
“The President has been very clear on this. The Vice
President has been very clear on this and let me further
reiterate our position at the Central Bank of Nigeria that we
are not considering any further depreciation of the currency.
“What we are trying to concentrate on right now is how to
improve and deepen the foreign exchange market by
improving supply of foreign exchange into the market.
And to do so, we are trying to encourage people to export
and earn your export proceeds and use your export proceeds
to import whatever you need to import.
We are also concentrating on how to reduce the import of
items that we can produce in the country today.
“So that is our focus. I’m saying and very soon the CBN will
be launching a campaign called PAVE, which means
“Produce locally, add value and export your product and earn
your foreign exchange for your imports’’ because this is the
only way we can support the efforts of CBN in intervening
and providing foreign exchange in the market to meet the
import needs of our people.
“It is very clear, what we need to do is reduce our propensity
to import but we will not depreciate our currency. For now
we will not.”
The governor also revealed that the CBN was working a list
to exclude a number of items from foreign exchange market.
“First of all, the CBN does not have the power to ban the
import of any item.
What we have done is to exclude certain items that are
imported into the country from obtaining foreign exchange
from the Nigerian foreign exchange market.
“Yes, it is also true we held a stakeholders’ meeting with the
organized private sector and prominent and leading private
sector stakeholder were at that meeting.
“It was not meant for the press. The purpose of that meeting
was to engage the private sector to make the private sector
understand that government realizes that they are engine of
growth and we also used the opportunity to explain to them
the basis and purpose of those policies that we have
introduced and at the end of that meeting they were very
happy, they saw our position and indeed at the end of that
meeting some of them in fact provided us with the names of
some items that should be included in the list that should be
excluded from foreign exchange.
“And I must confess that at this stage given the
determination of some of the organized sectors to say that
yes, they produce these items and that we should exclude
those items from foreign exchange.
We are reviewing that list and we may in due course include
more items products that can be produced in Nigeria in the
list of items that will be excluded from foreign exchange in
the Nigerian foreign exchange market”, he said.
Meanwhile he Naira on Friday depreciated further at the
parallel market amidst intense regulation of the activities of
operators of the Bureau de Change (BDCs) by the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The currency lost N0.5 to the dollar as it exchanged for
N226.5, as against its previous value of N226.
The official exchange rate at the interbank window remained
at N197 to the dollar.
Traders at the parallel market attributed the recent
depreciation of the naira to the apex banks further tightening
of the conditions of operation of the BDCs, making more
people to access forex at the parallel market.
They said that the CBN now required operators of the BDCs
to show the name of the person/company buying forex, his
Bank Verification Number (BVN) and his ticket, if he was
travelling. )