August 23, 2016 – The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has directed banks operating in Nigeria to reserve 60 percent of all foreign exchange strictly for the purpose of importation of raw materials for the manufacturing sector.
In a circular, Ag. Director, Trade and Exchange Department, Mr. W. D. Gotring, said the apex bank made the decision because the bank discovered that negligible proportion of foreign exchange sales are being channeled towards the importation of raw materials for the manufacturing sector.
“Against this background and in order to address the observed imbalance, authorized dealers are hereby directed to henceforth dedicate at least 60 percent of their total foreign exchange purchases from all sources(interbank inclusive) to end users strictly for the purposes of importation of raw materials, plant and machinery.
“The balance of 40 percent should be used to meet other trade obligations, visible and invisible transactions”, it said and urged banks to continue to publish details of daily forex allocation in the newspaper.
