Abuja – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says autonomous sources such as exporters and correspondent banks now control the price of dollars in banks and the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment.

The Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Mu’azu Ibrahim, said this in an interview on Friday in Abuja. He said although the price of Naira remained stable at N197 to a dollar and N284.1 to a pound sterling at the interbank market, it was hovering at the parallel market. The Naira changed for N373 to a dollar and N505 to pound sterling on Friday in Abuja.

Ibrahim said customers would also find Forex expensive in the banks or while using their debit cards abroad because the Forex got by banks from the CBN was not sufficient for all transactions. He explained that for this reason, banks reserved the Forex they got for developmental transactions, especially to manufacturers looking to import necessary materials to aid the real sectors of the economy. Ibrahim said although the CBN had not put a ban on accessing Forex for school fees or medicals, it was not a priority so banks might use their discretion to allocate or not to allocate Forex for such. “They should be able to use their discretion, looking at their capacity to source from the interbank and the other autonomous sources. “However, people may expect to hear about the rates; people need to understand that if banks source for Forex from the interbank, the rates at which they will sell to customers will be guided by the interbank rates.

“But if they source it from the autonomous sources, the rate they will sell that specific portion will be guided by the rates at which they buy from these autonomous sources. “ CBN has not given any directive to banks to stop selling Forex for school fees and medicals, and I can confirm to you that the CBN sells through the interbank what the banks are allowed to finance. “There is no ban; there is no restrictions, but priorities will be given to demand for raw materials, plants and machinery,’’ he said. On the issue of hike in food prices since the CBN excluded importers of 41 items including rice, processed meat, vegetables, toothpick, among others, from sourcing Forex, Ibrahim said it was only temporary.

“By not importing those items we are saving the Forex demand on the market and the reserve and, at the same time, boosting local production. “The ban of these products, particularly agriculture products have begun to have positive effects on the economy. “I was in Ibadan last week and was encouraged by a producer that rose from Cassava farming to processing and that farmer is now producing industrial starch which is in high demand. “Some companies, large corporations that were importing industrial starch are now sourcing from that company in Ibadan. “I was happy when the producer said that last year, they were able to record nine billion dollars in exports; this is encouraging. “There are many like that and once we give them time, the market will improve. “So my advice to Nigerians is to think Nigeria, act Nigeria and buy Nigeria; let us patronise made in Nigeria goods,’’ he said.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/612215/

$9billion dollars? Na him our economy the collapse?
This is more than the internal revenue generated by LAGOS STATE, RIVERS STATE, ANAMBRA STATE & KANO STATE




Baba please do something our enemies have started laughing at us.


FTC! FTC!! FTC!!!

It is either he said N9b or $9m, it couldn't have been $9b for that company alone.

Very impossible case for now.

Don't believed anything you hear from this APC govt because of madness.

9billion dollars in export and we don't know the company.



Jux negodu how this people are mentioning Zimbabwe dollars anyhow

Let's do everything to bring the naira back to life.its our responsibility.

Make diz tn no hit FP.ooo Na wash..fake ni

veraponpo:

It is either he said N9b or $9m, it couldn't have been $9b for that company alone.

Very impossible case for now.

Believe APC agents at your own peril

This is ethnic rivalry taken to ridiculous heights.
What is nigeria's total oil export,is it up to $9b that just industrial starch from just one company,not even entire agric export wud fetch $9b?
Maybe they meant 9b Zimbabwe dollars!

Or is he trying to say 9million dollars? Well that that is encouraging and is d best thing to ever happen in nigeria

The way APC govt mentions dollar always make naira to Shiver.


$1= 359
$9billion= 23 state total budget in nigeria

Slip of tongue or he's been misquoted, it could be $9m

If he truly said $9bn....then he deserves the sack...
Sai Baba...
Please sack Mu'azu....
We don't need illiterates running our country..

I guess he meant $9m.

mallamseifaldin:
$9billion dollars?
Na him our economy dey collapse?


Baba please do something our enemies have started laughing at us.

our economy is not colapsing, we are rising to become a develop country, we must do what a develop country is doing in orde to become one of them, #stopimportation and eat what u can produce, stop importing sickness and disease and eat natural food made in nigeria,
Nigeria wil be great

with patience, our economy will improve

Can't be $9 billion. Probably NGN OR $9M

Jesusloveyou:
Or is he trying to say 9million dollars? Well that that is encouraging and is d best thing to ever happen in nigeria

Even $9 million is pure fraud. Cassava starch would even give you that amount in 1 year. Who eats cassava starch when there is wheat flour? Cassava starch and bakers went on strike? Haba, unless they are making it in zimbabwean dollars then.

Na to export starch sure pass for now. Hahaha

But is it not foolish of the reporter and his editor to clarify the statement if they are not sure of what the guy said.

One thing is for sure $9Bn is impossible, even 9 billion Naira is a big stretch of imagination from a single unknown company

If a whole newspaper could publish this without digesting the import of the information they pass to the public what do you expect from the average educated Nigerian with our nonsense curriculum to be able to process figures in million, billion and trillion

Huh?

Wizprodigy:

Even $9 million is pure fraud. Cassava starch would even give you that amount in 1 year. Who eats cassava starch when there is wheat flour? Cassava starch and bakers went on strike? Haba, unless they are making it in zimbabwean dollars then.

I think it is 9million dollar. maybe wrongly reported by vanguard.

veraponpo:

It is either he said N9b or $9m, it couldn't have been $9b for that company alone.

Very impossible case for now.

the way these people quote the billion dem in dollars, even Barack Obama sef go fear

Wizprodigy:

Even $9 million is pure fraud. Cassava starch would even give you that amount in 1 year. Who eats cassava starch when there is wheat flour? Cassava starch and bakers went on strike? Haba, unless they are making it in zimbabwean dollars then.

Don't be ignorant. 1 ton goes for $500 and you have 20 tons in a container. You need to have shipped 900 container loads to make $9M. An easy feat and 900,000 containers to make $9B. An arduous task.

Some people will not read the post and think $9 billion sales is the same as $9 billion profit.

rockiedink:


Even if it is sales, do you honestly believe that this fictitious company REALLY did that volume in export sales?

If you do, then it's just sad!

IOb:


Don't be ignorant. Even $9B in revenue is impossible unless you're saying he's the sole exporter/distributor of industrial starch in the world which in any case is still impossible.

I never said I believed the assertion, even Oil sales for the whole Nigeria didn't hit $9 billion last year

Wat of d forex Bubu z using 2 travel. Is dat 1 nt affect our forex reserves. Am sure aftr Egypt, he ll visit North Korea, south Korea, Australia, Haiti, Hawaii and Thailand. And Cbn cannot advise d clueless Bubu dat he z depleting our forex reserves.

It's either N9B or $9M, where will they get that amount of cassave to make $9B starch? where is the farm that is producing that amount of cassava?

Oyo is getting there

Nice one. We need more of export product to strengthen the naira

9 billion dollars for paper... Hahahaha!
Make Buhari no hear dis one.

I don tire for this dollar issue

Hmmmmmm...