The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lifted the foreign exchange ban for the importation of 43 items including fertilizers, rice and cement into the country.
The apex bank further said it would make such interventions from time to time, as part of its responsibility to ensure price stability and boost liquidity in the country’s foreign exchange market.
The CBN had in 2015 restricted the items from accessing foreign exchange from the import and export window on the assessment that they were “not valid for foreign exchange and could be produced in the country.
In a statement Thursday, however, Isa AbdulMumin, the CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications said: “As part of its responsibility to ensure price stability, the CBN will boost liquidity in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market by interventions from time to time. As market liquidity improves, these CBN interventions will gradually decrease.
“Importers of all the 43 items previously restricted by the 2015 Circular referenced TED/FEMFPC/GEN/O1/010 and its addendums are now allowed to purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market,” AbdulMumin added.
Some of the other items removed from the ban include margarine, palm kernel/palm oil products/vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vegetable products,poultry chicken, eggs and turkey.
Others are private airplanes/jets, Indian incense, tinned fish in sauce (geisha)/sardines, cold rolled steel sheets, galvanised steel sheets and roofing sheets.
Also included are are wheelbarrows, head pans, metal boxes and containers, enamelware, steel drums, steel pipes, wire rods (deformed and not deformed, iron rods and reinforcing bars,wire mesh, steel nails, security and razor wire, wood particle boards and panels, wood fiber boards and panels, as well as plywood boards and panels.
Also included are wooden doors, furniture, toothpicks, glass and glassware, kitchen utensils, tableware, tiles – vitrified and ceramic, textiles, woven fabrics, clothes, plastic and rubber products, cellophane wrappers, soap and cosmetics, tomatoes/tomato pastes, Euro bond/foreign currency bond/share purchases and maize.
“The CBN reiterates that the prevailing Foreign Exchange (FX) rates should be referenced from platforms such as the CBN website, FMDCQ, and other recognised or appointed trading systems to promote price discovery, transparency, and credibility in the FX rates,” Abdulmumin further stated.
He added: “The CBN has set as one of its goals the attainment of a single FX market. Consultation is ongoing with market participants to achieve this goal.”
