The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has expressed hope in the recent forex policy instituted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), noting that a single forex source would reduce the excesses of middlemen.
This was stated by the Director-General, MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, in a statement, noting that the policy would also “save” the value of the naira.
Ajayi-Kadir said that the policy will be measured by how best the CBN and commercial banks are able to provide forex to “genuine users”.
He said, “However, much of the efficiency and effectiveness of the new guidelines will be determined by how determined the CBN and commercial banks will be to ensure that FX gets to genuine users.
“For instance, with the new policy, manufacturers will depend solely on the interbank market for their FX needs. We hope the banks will provide a seamless process and timely execution of foreign exchange applications by manufacturers.
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“We believe that a single FX window will eliminate the excesses of middlemen, save the value of the naira and allow for available FX to be allocated productively using the official banking protocols.”
He added that the allocation of forex was always impacted by the lack of full compliance on the part of operators to set guidelines.
He said that “the operators always lacked the ability and the will to continuously adhere to set guidelines. Most times their operations drift into round tripping and other financial incongruities that negate the overall objective of creating the BDC foreign exchange market.
“The end result was always the escalation of the premium of foreign exchange in BDC compared to the official window and further depreciation of the naira.”
