The country’s external reserves have relatively picked up due to dollars pumped into the foreign exchange market by the Central Bank of Nigeria since February 20, when it announced its new policy measures.
According to CBN, the reserves, majorly from crude oil earnings, rose from $29.282 billion as of February 20 to $30.586 billion as of April 19, 2017, coupled with the steps taken by the apex bank to commence sectoral FX interventions.
With the intervention, the Naira appreciated from N410 to N380 within the last one week as operators of small and medium enterprises are beginning to heave a sigh of relief as they have been granted special consideration for $20,000 each quarter to import essential and eligible raw materials and finished goods that are critical to their operations.
The spokesperson of the apex bank, Dr. Isaac Okorafor, said that the bank had introduced measures to ease the difficulties encountered by small businesses.
Okoroafor added that the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria had acknowledged that the previous 60 per cent FX allocation had helped to boost capacity utilisation, and still demanding for more dollars to be made available for real sector players in the small to medium scale category.
He, however, urged all participants in the market to cooperate with the CBN and abide by the regulatory guidelines in order to ensure smooth and effective operations.
