By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said its stance on banned 43 non-eligible items for foeriegn exchange introduced under by its suspended Governor, Godwin Emefiele, remains unchanged.
This is coming after the apex bank recently made operational changes to activities in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange (FX) market.
It also added that items are not be funded with forex from the Investors and Exporters’ (I&E) window.
The apex bank disclosed this at the weekend in the Q&A document published on its website, where it explained new operational changes to the FX market.
The report titled “Understanding the Operational Changes to the Forex Market”, said, “The status quo remains on the 43 non-eligible items. The items are not permitted to be funded from the Investors and Exporters’ (I&E) window”.
But reacting to the statement, analysts said it confirms that the CBN will continue to implement its ban on the 43 items, suggesting a continueation of its import substitution policy that aims at protecting the local market.
Analysts at Nairametrics said, the implication is that businesses seeking to purchase goods and services that are on the list will have to access the parallel market.
If the demand for such items is higher than what is obtainable in the official market, then this could affect the central bank’s ability to achieve exchange rate stability and close the disparity between the official and black market rate.
The apex bank had in 2015, released a circular, detailing the 41 imported goods and services from accessing the official FX market.
It had continued to modify the list by including more items and in 2020 added maize/corn, a widely consumed staple food in the country.
Emefiele in 2017, explained that the bank will remain because it had led to remarkable success in domestic production of goods and services.
He said, “Given the remarkable success that has been achieved in stimulating domestic production of goods such as rice, cassava, and maize, as a result of the restriction placed by the CBN on access to forex for these items, the CBN intends to vigorously ensure that this policy remains in place and additional efforts will be made to block any attempts by unscrupulous parties.
I mean both individuals and corporates that intend to find other avenues of accessing forex, in order to import these items into Nigeria.”