Market News

 by Bukola Idowu

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has said  its several policies on exchange rates is yielding results as remittances into the country soared to $100 million per week while inflow at the Investors’ and Exporters’ window rose to $250 million as at last month.

Speaking at the 2021 annual bankers dinner in  Lagos at the weekend, Emefiele, noted that, its Naira4Dollar scheme has seen remittance into the country grow from $5 million per week in June to over $100 million per week.

Emefiele stressed that the several policies of the apex bank on foreign exchange has seen inflow of forex rise on the investors and exporters window as well as on the part of remittance.

To him, “remittance inflows have been supported by our naira for dollar program, and we have seen a surge in remittance inflows from over $5 million per week in June 2020 to over $100 million per week in October 2021.

“As a result of our demand management policy, the naira has remained largely stable around N411 per dollar at the I&E window particularly since the discontinuation of forex allocation to Bureau De Change operators along with the convergence between the CBN and NAFEX rates.

“Banks are now able to meet the demands of their customers seeking forex for SMEs, school fees, medical and PTAs, which has reduced the need of customers to rely on alternative providers of foreign exchange. Average daily forex turnover at the I&E window is now over $250 million, up from $40 million in April 2020.”

To further boost foreign exchange inflow into the country, Emefiele noted that, the apex bank was looking at ways to tap into the over $100 trillion held by institutional investors in OECD countries.

“Most of it invested in low yielding assets relative to high yielding opportunities in Nigeria. Working to tap into this pool of funds will require the set-up of an investment framework that offers comfort and security to investors seeking to invest in critical sectors of our economy.

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“In this regard, the Central Bank of Nigeria is working to set up an International Financial Center at the Eko Atlantic City in Lagos, that would serve as a hub for attracting domestic and external capital which is needed to strengthen our post covid economy.

The International Finance Center when fully operational in the 2nd quarter of 2022, will help to position Nigeria as a key destination for investment in Africa,” he pointed out.

Asides this,  he revealed that N1 trillion in seed funding has been pulled together for the infrastructure company(Infracorp), to kickstart operations by January 2022 . The fund, he said, was  provided as seed funds by the promoters to support the operations of Infracorp.

According to him, four fund managers, as well as a management team has been selected to run and manage Infracorp.

“Over the next two months, Infracorp will kick off its operations by targeting strategic infrastructure projects that would help catalyze further growth of our economy,” he said.

Infracorp is expected to raise over N15 trillion to support investment in critical infrastructure in Nigeria.