SAN FRANCISCO, January 19, (THEWILL) – The Senate on Tuesday commended and supported the foreign exchange (FX) policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) after a closed door session with the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele for over two hours.
The governor was summoned to explain the CBN’s policies vis-a-vis the fall in FX reserves including its exclusion of some items from access to FX as well as policy coordination between fiscal and monetary authorities.
Senators, after the session, said they believed that the policies were geared towards increasing local production, creating jobs, safeguarding the nation’s commonwealth and expanding economic opportunities and growth.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the CBN governor presented a ‘detailed, comprehensive and lucid account of the performance of the economy in the last one year.’
According to Abdullahi, Emefiele’s presentation “began with the current global economic conditions, which have been characterised by external shocks, including the sharp decline in commodity prices, the geographical tensions along important global trading routes and tightening of monetary policy in the US.”
“The governor’s presentation also gave us an insight into the bank’s analysis and understanding of the situation, and therefore, the rationale underlying the countervailing policy actions it has taken over the last couple of months.”
But the naira depreciated significantly against the dollar on Tuesday across FX markets, as a result of shortage of the greenback.
Naira weakened against the dollar by N2 or 0.68 percent each at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the FX market and the parallel market.
At the end of trading, the local currency closed at N296/$ compared with N294/$ the previous day at the BDC segment. It closed at N298/$ as against N296/$ traded the previous day at the parallel market.
At the inter-bank market, it dropped by N1.81k or 0.92 percent against dollar as it closed at N199.35k/$ on Tuesday from N197.54k/$ on Monday.
However, the CBN’s clearing rate remained unchanged, closing at N197.00k/$ at the inter-bank FX as seen on FMDQ website.
Story by David Oputah
