Technocrat Media, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it will no longer sell foreign exchange to deposit money banks (DMB) by the end of 2022.
The apex bank said that it is time for the banks to source their forex from export proceeds from the non-oil sector of the economy.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele made this known on Thursday in Abuja while speaking at a special press briefing which mark the end of the 364th Bankers Committee meeting on the launch of the bank’s new forex repatriation scheme ‘RT200 FX Programme’
According to CBN, the RT200 FX Programme which stands for the “Race to US$200 billion in FX Repatriation”, is a set of policies, plans and programmes for non-oil exports that will enable Nigeria to attain a lofty yet attainable goal of US$200 billion in FX repatriation, exclusively from non-oil exports, over the next 3-5 years.
Mr Emefiele said the decision was in line with the apex bank’s new commitment to boost the country’s foreign reserves through proceeds from non-oil exports.
“The era is coming to an end when, because your customers need 100million dollars in foreign exchange or 200 million dollars, you now want to pack all the dollars and pass it to CBN to give you dollars.”
“It is coming to an end before or by the end of this year. We will tell them don’t come to the Central Bank for foreign exchange again go and generate their export proceeds.”
“When those export proceeds come, we will fund them at 5% for you and they will earn rebait. Then you can sell those proceeds to your customers that want 100 million dollars. But to say you will continue to come to the Central Bank to give you dollars, we will stop it.”
“Nigeria cannot continue to depend on FX earnings to fund its import obligations from revenue coming from earnings from products where we cannot determine both price and quantity.’’ Mr Emefiele said.”
The CBN stressed that the RT200 FX programme is to take immediate effect as the bank will provide concessionary and long-term loans for business people who are working on expanding local existing plants or building new ones with the aim of boosting local production and adding value to the non-oil commodities before exporting same abroad.
According to the apex bank, the loans are to run for a tenure of 10 years with a two-year moratorium to operate with a 5% interest rate.
Mr Emefiele added that the newly introduced programme will be driven by value-adding exports facility, non-oil commodities expansion facility, non-oil FX rebate scheme, dedicated non-oil export terminal and biannual non-oil export summit.
[NAIRA METRICS]
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