Emefiele Declines Emir Sanusi’s Call for Naira Devaluation

    The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has rejected calls by his predecessor and current Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi ll for further devaluation of the Naira.


Speaking with State House Correspondents in Abuja yesterday, on the sideline of a meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and some top government officials, the CBN governor said Naira was devalued from N155 to N197 in February this year and that this was enough.

There has been a lot of talk on whether or not we want to depreciate our currency again. There is no intention to depreciate or adjust the currency any longer. The president has been very clear on this. The Vice President has been very clear on this and let me further reiterate our position at the Central Bank of Nigeria that we are not considering any further depreciation of the currency," Emefiele said.
He explained that the CBN was trying to concentrate on how to improve and deepen the foreign exchange market by improving supply of foreign exchange into the market.

He said: "To do so, we are trying to encourage people to export and earn export proceeds and use the proceeds to import whatever you need to import. We are also concentrating on how to reduce the import of items that we can produce in the country today. So that is our focus.

"I’m saying very soon the CBN will be launching a campaign called PAVE, which means 'Produce Locally, Add Value and Export your product and earn your foreign exchange for your imports' because this is the only way we can support the efforts of CBN in intervening and providing foreign exchange in the market to meet the import needs of our people.

"It is very clear, what we need to do is reduce our propensity to import but we will not depreciate our currency. For now we will not."
When asked to produce the list of items that had been banned from entering the country, he said: "First of all, the CBN does not have the power to ban the import of any item.

"What we have done is to exclude certain items that are imported into the country from obtaining foreign exchange from the Nigerian foreign exchange market."

Emefiele confirmed that the CBN held a stakeholders’ meeting with the organised private sector, a meeting he said was attended by prominent and leading private sector stakeholders.

He said: "It is not meant for the press. The purpose of that meeting was to engage the private sector and make the private sector understand that government realises that they are engine of growth and we also used the opportunity to explain to them the basis and purpose of those policies that we have introduced.

"At the end of that meeting, they were very happy, they saw our position and indeed at the end of that meeting some of them in fact provided us with the names of some items that should be included in the list that should be excluded from foreign exchange.

"I must confess that at this stage, given the determination of some of the organised sectors to say that yes, they produce these items and that we should exclude those items from foreing exchange, we are reviewing that list. We may in due course include more items/products that can be produced in Nigeria in the list of items that will be excluded from foreign exchange in the Nigerian foreign exchange market."