CBN to stop forex sale to banks by December, targets $200bn non-oil exports
The Central bank of Nigeria has revealed that it will stop the sale of foreign exchange to Deposit Money Banks by the end of the year.
According to the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, banks must begin to source their forex from export proceeds, hence, the need to support non-oil exporters in the country.
He pointed out that the decision was in line with the apex bank’s new commitment to boost the country’s foreign reserves through proceeds from non-oil exports.
he made this known at a press briefing on the launch of the bank’s new forex repatriation scheme, RT200 held after the Banker’s Committee meeting on Thursday in Abuja.
RT200 which stands for Race to $200bn is a set of policies, plans and programmes for non-oil exports that will enable the country to generate $200bn in forex repatriation, exclusively from non-oil exports over the next three to five years, according to the governor.
Under the programme, which is to take effect immediately, the apex bank will provide concessionary and long term loans for businesses interested in expanding existing plants or building new ones for the sole purpose of adding significant value to the non-oil commodities before exporting same.
The governor said the loans will have 10 year tenure, with a two year moratorium and an interest rate of five per cent.
Similar to the naira for dollar programme, he said, would also entail a forex rebate scheme, where the exporters will be paid N5 for every dollar they put in the economy.
“Today, we are also announcing the introduction of the non-oil FX rebate scheme, a special local currency rebate scheme for non-oil exporters of semi finished and finished produce who show verifiable evidence of export proceeds repatriation sold directly into the I&E window to boost liquidity in the market”, Emefiele revealed.
In recognition of the perennial problems of port congestion cited by exporters as a major impediment to improve operations and foreign exchange earnings, Emefiele noted that the CBN plans to establish a dedicated non-oil terminal.
He also said that the Bankers’ Committee will be partnering with the state governments that have existing ports to achieve this goal, adding that the committee would provide a significant part of the funding needed for the project.
the bank also announced that it would host the maiden event of a Biannual Non-Oil Export Summit which will hold in the first week of April.
He, however noted that the banks might be able to access a portion of their forex demands from the CBN if they could provide impressive exports promotion records.
“Or maybe if they are lucky, if the bank approaches us for forex, if we see their exports records, we will give them five or ten per cent of that request”, Emefiele noted.
Meanwhile, the governor also announced that the interest rates on its intervention loans which were expected to revert to 9% by March 1, would remain at 5% until March 1 2023.
