COMFORT EKELEME
The Central a Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that the external reserve has risen to $33 billion.However, the increases in the foreign exchange reserves are attributable to oil prices increase and relative stability in the Niger Delta.
CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, who made this known to at a seminar for Finance Correspondents and business editors in Awka Anambra State, also noted that the unregulated parallel market popularly known as black market is officially dead.According to him, the trick used in bringing to an end the parallel market was the action taken by the CBN when it said henceforth those who want to buy foreign exchange for invisible transactions should go to the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), adding that the CBN supplied enough forex to meet those demands.
Invisible transactions include Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), Business Travel Allowance (BTA), school fees, and medical. Okorafor said such singular action of the CBN moved demand away from black market to banks and completely decelerated the parallel market.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had early this year said that the rising oil prices have seen foreign exchange inflows through the CBN rise by well over 82 per cent while foreign reserves which had dropped to lowest levels last year have peaked to the current level.
Emefiele had said the CBN will continue to provide dollars with priority given to manufacturing industries needing to import raw materials and spare parts. He added that the Apex bank would “from time to time” intervene in the foreign exchange market to ensure the (official) exchange rate did not go beyond its expectations.The price of Brent crude oil rose to $55.79 as at yesterday September 14, 2017. Crude oil account for more than 90 percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released the capital importation report, which indicated that investment inflows into the country rose by 95.02 per cent from $884.1m in the first quarter of this year to $1.79 billion in the second quarter. Analysts said that the renewed increase in the country’s foreign exchange buffer will help boost investor confidence in the economy. Risks to the rising external reserves, according to analysts, include stalled or disappointing borrowing plans and further disruptions to Nigeria’s oil production.
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