Nigeria’s apex monetary authority, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not changed its managed float Foreign Exchange (Forex) policy.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this to Confiance News during the 278th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press briefing on Tuesday.
“Let me repeat, Nigeria has not changed from its Foreign Exchange management policies. Nigeria still remains on a managed float. What does a managed float regime mean? It means
that the central Bank, being the institution that has the core mandate for foreign exchange management in the country, would run the market, see to how the market operates, depending on the reading and how foreign exchange moves in the market,” Emefiele disclosed.
“It might interest us to know that since January, the CBN has not intervened in the IE window. The market has always operated within a band of close to about 409, in fact at some point, I think it attained 412 and went to 413. It began to move and that is the way it is supposed to move. Central bank’s job is to watch the market to see how its operating and determine whether or not it should intervene and moderate the rates in line with our own reading of where we think exchange rates should be,” he continued.
Hence, debunking the purported claim by Bloomberg, a $22.5 billion worth international media organisation, that Nigeria has moved to a flexible foreign exchange rate regime.
Read also: Nigeria devalues currency as it adopts flexible rate
Reacting to the issue of scarcity of foreign exchange at Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Emefiele said, “I would say that part of the measure that we have adopted is that on a weekly basis, the CBN disburses not less than $80 million to the banks; either for PTAs that’s personal travels or business travels or payment of school fees.
The management, We’ve decided on creating a desk where you can call people who will respond. It’s like those kind of desk at the call centres where you can call and complain if you cannot get money for school fees or for travels.”
He assured Nigerians that any foreign currency obligations will be met.
“If you have any foreign currency obligations, you will not lose your money,” he assured.
Meanwhile, the MPC retained Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 11.5 percent; Asymmetric Window of +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR; Cash Reserve Ratio
(CRR) at 27.50 percent and liquidity ratio at 30 percent.
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