Autonomous sources control prices of dollars in banks, BDCs – CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday said that autonomous sources such as exporters and correspondent banks now control the price of dollars in banks and the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment.
The Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Mu’azu Ibrahim, stated this in an interview in Abuja.
He said although the price of Naira remained stable at N197 to a dollar and N284.1 to a pound sterling at the interbank market, it was hovering at the parallel market.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Naira changed for N373 to a dollar and N505 to pound sterling on Friday in Abuja.
Ibrahim said customers would also find Forex expensive in the banks or while using their debit cards abroad because the Forex got by banks from the CBN was not sufficient for all transactions.
He explained that for this reason, banks reserved the Forex they got for developmental transactions, especially to manufacturers looking to import necessary materials to aid the real sectors of the economy.
Ibrahim said although the CBN had not put a ban on accessing Forex for school fees or medicals, it was not a priority so banks might use their discretion to allocate or not to allocate Forex for such.
He added that there was no ban or restrictions, but priorities will be given to demand for raw materials, plants and machinery.
On the issue of hike in food prices since the CBN excluded importers of 41 items including rice, processed meat, vegetables, toothpick, among others, from sourcing Forex, Ibrahim said it was only temporary.
Ibrahim said by excluding importation of those items, the CBN is saving the Forex demand on the market and the reserve and, at the same time, boosting local production.
The Director said that the ban of these products, particularly agriculture products have begun to yield positive effects on the economy.
“I was in Ibadan last week and was encouraged by a producer that rose from Cassava farming to processing and that farmer is now producing industrial starch which is in high demand” he said.
Ibrahim said he was happy when the producer said that last year, they were able to record nine billion dollars in exports.
He concluded by advising Nigerians to think Nigeria, act Nigeria and buy Nigeria, by patronise made in Nigeria goods. – NTA.