Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   Economy   >   FX: Why we can’t meet oil marketers’ demand – CBN

FX: Why we can’t meet oil marketers’ demand – CBN

By on February 8, 2017

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said yesterday that it could not meet the demand for foreign exchange by oil marketers because of the continuous decline in our forex earning and receipts.

The Deputy Governor of the CBN, Sarah Alade, said this when she appeared before a House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on review of fuel price.

Alade, who represented the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, said the apex bank was facing serious difficulties in meeting up with the demands of the marketers.

She said from 2013 to 2014, the apex bank got between $2 billion and $3 billion monthly and sold about 30 percent of that at the inter-bank, saying about 70 percent of the money came from foreign investors.

However, she said, the CBN now gets between $600 million and $700 million with nothing coming from the inter-bank.

Speaking at the hearing, minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu said there was an arrangement to ease the forex scarcity, known as intervention scheme.

He said going by government plans, the country would stop fuel importation by the year 2019 as foreign investors are currently collaborating with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to make the country’s refineries fully functional before then.

“This has consistently served as a target for this government so that by 2018 December, NNPC must be able to deliver on some of the terms given to them, one of which is to reduce petroleum importation by 60 per cent. And by 2019, we should be able to exit completely the importation of petroleum products in this country,” he said.

Members of the committee, chaired by Rep Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe (PDP, Imo) expressed concern that despite the country being a producer of crude oil, citizens still pay huge sums buying the refined product.

 

[DailyTrust]