MARKET NEWS

BY  Nike Popoola

The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has urged exporters to repatriate export proceeds in order to boost foreign exchange inflow in the country.

He spoke while making a presentation at Zenith’s Bank’s 2021 export seminar on Tuesday.

Emefiele said, “We would also like to urge existing exporters, that they endeavor to repatriate their export proceeds as required by law.

“The CBN guarantees that exporters will have unfettered access to their export proceeds and we do expect that exporters would reciprocate the good gestures of the bank by repatriating their export proceeds to improve foreign exchange inflows into the country.”

The CBN governor said the Nigerian economy was able to emerge out of the recession in the fourth quarter of 2020, following two quarters of negative growth.

This, it noted, was due to significant interventions by the monetary and fiscal authorities in Nigeria, aimed at stimulating consumption expenditure.

However, he said, a strong and well-balanced recovery would require additional contributions from the private sector in supporting greater growth of our non-oil exports.

“The volatility in the oil markets which has exposed the Nigerian economy to significant exogenous shocks, along with the growing trajectory towards lesser use of fossil fuels in the near future, by some advanced and emerging market countries, makes it imperative that we work to significantly improve our non-oil exports earnings,” he said.

Emefiele said developing trade portals that could support instant sales of goods manufactured in Nigeria to consumers in other parts of Africa was one step that could help to support the creation of jobs in Nigeria and improve foreign exchange inflows for the country.

The banks, he said, were already playing a significant role in expanding across the African continent.

“I would like to encourage them to also leverage their presence in other parts of Africa, to support Nigerian businesses seeking to expand into new markets in Africa, by providing trade facilities to those with strong potential for growth,” he said.

He said the CBN was working with stakeholders in repositioning the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, which would help to support greater trade for operators in these vital sectors earlier mentioned.