As the Central Bank of Nigeria intesnsifies moves to strengthen the naira, a financial expert and President, Chatered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Prof. Segun Ajibola, has urged the apex bank to sustain its policies.
Prof. Ajibola explained that there was the need for the sustainability of the ongoing foreign exchange policies, if the CBN was determined to boost the state of the national currency.
The CIBN boss said that the more dollar the apex bank could inject into the market, the faster the naira would rebound, adding, “If Nigeria is able to generate more dollars, especially outside the oil revenue, we can achieve a stable economy.
As at today, dollars are being pumped into the market to pay school fees, medical expenses, travel cost and essential items for Nigerians, who are involved.
“Students studying abroad won’t want to forfeit their study programmes, because the dollar rate has gone up, or somebody that needs to be treated medically abroad won’t say he or she won’t complete his or her treatment because the dollar has gone up.”
Such demand for the dollar, according to him, are the major reasons the government keeps injecting more dollars into the system.
He said, “Whatever rate the dollars may be, they will still buy in order to cater for their education and travelling and medical treatment amongst others.
“So the concern now is that, as the CBN decides to stabilise the market with these forex inflows, how long can that be sustained? There must be sustainability in all these activities, else there could be crisis.”
Meanwhile, the apex bank had injected another $180 million into the foreign exchange market. CBN’s spokesperson, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, explained that the offer, through the inter-bank window, was to enable banks meet bids for whole sale auction.
Okoroafor, who confirmed the fresh injection of forex to the market, said the wholesale requests would be settled soon, adding that the CBN was optimistic that its continued intervention would impact on the value of the naira, which had continued to strengthen in the foreign exchange market against other international currencies, including the dollar, pound and euro.
He added that the apex bank was committed to ensuring that authorised dealers got sufficient supply to meet the demands of authentic customers of banks.
“The CBN has so far met all the legitimate demands for forex from genuine customers. All legitimate customers should therefore approach the CBN with their complaints if they are unfairly denied access,” Okoroafor said.
