ABUJA – The Central Bank of Nigeria said it disagreed with the JP Morgan, a global financial firm, for putting Nigeria’s bonds on negative watch for three to five months.
Mr Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, said this while addressing newsmen at the end of the Monetary Policy Meeting on Tuesday in Abuja.
“I think it is important for me to review the news on JP Morgan Index team to place Nigeria on a negative watch for the next three to five months.
“It was widely reported by the foreign media, quoting JP Morgan that Nigeria’s foreign exchange as well as the local bond market is illiquid.
“I have responded to this by saying that we disagree with this situation or assertion that the market is not liquid.
“It is important to note that first of all, reducing net open position from one to zero, did not mean that there was no trading,’’ he said.
He added that there was intra day trading during those periods.
He added that the apex bank insisted that the banks must close their positions to zero because of the volatility in the market during that period.
“On exchange rate, we thought that we could not let that continue because we discovered certain uncomfortable tendencies in the market which portend speculative attack on the currency.
“We are keenly monitoring the market.
“ That was the reason we took that decision; we were very clear when we say that the net open position was being reviewed by zero at that time in the interim.
Emefiele said that committee of governors had reviewed net open position upward to 0.1 percent after the activities of the market were reviewed on resumption of market in January.
