From AMECHI Ogbonna, Washington DC, USA

The Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), has revealed that the Federal Government raked in an estimated $10billion in foreign exchange inflows into the country through the Investors’ and Exporters’ FX Window since its launch in April 2017.

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who made the disclosure in Washington D.C. after he received the Forbes ‘Best of Africa Award’ at an event hosted on the sideline of the 2017 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF),  told his audience made up of top banking and finance executives, diplomats, and business executives, that Nigeria has overcome the difficult economic times brought about by the drop in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The CBN governor declared “I am happy that today we are where we are but I think we must also thank our friends who have shown a lot of confidence in us, our foreign investor community have been very supportive. We took some decisions that they didn’t like but I’m happy that this time round, we’ve taken one that really excites them, that is the opening of the investors’ window which has been particularly interesting to them and I must say that in 6 months, we have seen close to about $10 billion in inflows into Nigeria as a result of that window… We thank them for their confidence in Nigeria once again,”

He explained that recent developments in the economy have also helped to restore the confidence of the international community and foreign investors who had pulled out of the Nigerian market in 2016 due to the challenges posed by its economic recession to the nation’s economy.

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The governor however commended the investors who stood with the country in those trying period in its history as well as Nigerians at home and in the diaspora for their resilience and patience as the apex bank and the President Muhammadu Buhari administration implemented reforms geared towards returning the country to its glory days of self-sufficiency in manufacturing and agriculture.

Commenting on inflation, Emefiele said Nigeria also recorded some improvement as the figure plunged from 18percent in February 2017 to about 16 percent today, and expressed optimism that it will continue to decline.

“With some of the policies we have put in place we are optimistic that inflation will surely come down to the levels we have always known Nigeria for in the past…

“We thank Nigerians for standing with us, we know that we’ve managed to exit the recession with a fragile growth of 0.5 percent, we’ve seen inflation continue to trend downwards, we’ve seen exchange rate and reserves looking firmer and stronger, but I think we are determined to continue to push further to see to it that Nigeria returns to its historic growth path. 0.5 percent or 1percent is not the historical growth path for Nigeria, Nigeria is a country that must grow at a rate that is at least twice the population growth rate, that is at least 6 percent – 7 percent and until we achieve that we are not going to rest on our oars,” Emefiele assured.

Recall that Nigeria formally exited recession in Q2 2017 with a GDP growth of 0.55 percent after suffering about five consecutive quarters of negative growth. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday also predicted that Nigeria’s economy would grow faster than South Africa’s in 2017, to reenforce its status as Africa’s largest economy.