Chidi Samuel
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has provided additional forex to banks, as part of its efforts to alleviate the hardship experienced by Nigerians who need forex for school fees, medicals, and personal traveling allowance. Mr. Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s acting director, corporate communication made the disclosure in an interview with Thisday.
According to Okorafor, the additional forex, will be sold at 20 percent above the interbank rate.
He Said, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has taken a decision to directly fund banks with an additional foreign exchange to be able to take care of some personal travel allowance, school fees, and medical payments. With that, we have tried to set an exchange rate for those transactions at 20% above the interbank rate – that is, 20 percent above the interbank rate that ranges between N305 and N315.
“The banks have been directed to sell to all the people that will come up for it and they actually have been directed to open up avenues at the airport so that they can deal with these demands.”
The CBN spokesman also assured Nigerians in the interview that the naira would soon regain its value as there is an improvement in local production.
“The cause is obvious: we can’t earn enough again and we’re trying to rationalize and prioritize what we have at the moment so that it can meet the most basic needs of the country.”
“Although people are trying to use all kinds of machinations and tricks to bring us to that (N1000/$1), it won’t happen because the economy itself, local production is picking up and the rate at which people import useless things is coming down. I am very certain the naira is going to come back, gradually,” he said.
