CBN Denies Making Any Change In Nigeria’s Forex Structure

The management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday morning, took to its official Twitter handle (@cenbank) to deny reports that it had systematically devalued the Naira.
Without being explicit, the apex bank tweeted: “There has been NO change in Nigeria’s exchange rate structure.”

In a report titled: “Nigeria’s Central Bank Signals Weaker Official Naira,” Bloomberg noted the bank’s plan to allow the naira “weaken past its official rate as it gradually unwinds its regime of multiple exchange rates, data on its website shows.”

The report noted, for example, that the CBN stopped publishing the fixed naira exchange rate on its website, which was N305/$, to allow the rate become “market-determined,” used to ensure that some traders including, fuel importers, got cheap dollars.
The central bank, the report continued, is in talks with other agencies to move to a single rate for the nation’s currency, quoting Yewande Sadiku, the head of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, as saying last month.

“Putting that on the website means the central bank is gradually moving towards a single exchange-rate window. It is making the exchange rate more liquid to attract more inflows,” Kunle Ezun, a currency analyst at Ecobank Transnational Inc in Lagos, told the reporter by telephone.

The report also noted the Nigerian Customs Service as telling importers on Monday to pay for duties at a weaker rate of N326/$ from N306/$, citing a directive from CBN, according to Jonathan Nicol, President of Shippers Association of Lagos State.

https://investdata.com.ng/2019/06/cbn-denies-making-any-change-in-nigerias-forex-structure/