The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicated on Thursday, through its Bankers Committee, the intention to intensify its foreign exchange restriction on imported items as part of sustained efforts to ease pressure on the country’s external reserves and boost local production of goods.
The Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, gave this hint while briefing journalists on the decisions taken at the Bankers’ Committee meeting in Lagos.
Wigwe explained that in addition to the plan to intensify the forex restriction on more imported good items, the Committee also disclosed that plans had been concluded to establish mobile courts to try people who abuse the Naira.
According to him, the Committee decided that the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) should be channelled towards not only funding of agriculture, but also the financing of other productive companies in the agriculture value chain as well as manufacturing.
He explained further: “The whole idea is to ensure that funds are channelled towards the funding of agriculture, firms in the agriculture food chain as well as manufacturing. Very soon, sometimes in the future, the CBN will start looking at ways of reducing forex allocation to these sectors.
“As bankers, we should focus on import substitution and ensure that we discourage the importation of the basic items that can be produced locally so that overtime, there will be no need to allocate resources for the importation of these items because in the final analysis, that is the only way to boost the economy of this country”, Wigwe added.
In his remarks on the proposed plan to establish mobile courts to try those that abuse the national currency, the Managing Director of FSDH Merchant Bank, Mrs. Hamda Ambah, said that the Committee agreed on plans by the apex bank to establish the mobile courts.
According to her, the objective of the initiative is not to catch and punish anybody, but rather to encourage attitudinal change among Nigerians on the way they handle the Naira notes, adding that the committee is of the view that most of the people abusing the Naira are doing it out of ignorance.
Commenting further on the Naira abuse challenge, the CBN Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said that the CBN was determined to ensure that people stopped abusing the naira.
The apex bank’s spokesperson pointed out that the regulator was collaborating with the Nigerian Police and Ministry of Justice, among others, to ensure the takeoff of the mobile courts.
Okorafor expatiated: “The CBN Act of 2007 prohibits abuse of the local currency. The collaboration with the Police will intensify with the mobile courts. It is the duty of the law enforcement agents to arrest people.
“The Police will be everywhere to arrest people who abuse the naira. If you want to ‘spray’ naira, put it in an envelope or in a tray. People will still notice you”, he added.
Shedding more light on other issues discussed during the meeting, the Director of Banking Supervision at the CBN, Alhaji Ahmad Abdullahi, said that the committee discussed elaborately on the economy, particularly the global challenge and implications for the domestic environment.
He pointed out that despite the modest normalisation in the United States, investors still had confidence in the Nigerian economy, particularly following the rise in the prices of crude oil and the growing accretion in the external reserves.
Abduallahi said that the Committee decided that all hands must be on deck in order to ensure that the modest growth recorded in the nation’s economy over the past year is not reversed.
