Expert tasks Buhari, CBN on forex policy reversal

the federal government has kick-started the development of Nigeria’s Biennual Update Report (BUR), which provides updates of national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventories, including a National Inventory Report (NIR) and information on mitigation actions, needs and support received.

TO save the nation’s economy from impending woes, a financial expert has urged the Federal Government to reverse its foreign exchange policy, in order to stimulate domestic production.

An economic consultant with the Nigerian Indigenous Economic Development Alliance (NIEDA), Dr. Akinola Adebosin, who issued this warning, described the policy as a mismatch.

While noting that the source of inflows are unknown, Adebosin opined that if government is bent on keeping record and addressing money laundering, the CBN must make it difficult to use inflows without eligible transactions.

“In reality, exporters should be the one who can sell their inflows in the free market. This is the standard practice in most economies that have blossomed.  The basic reason is that their inflows are for the products that they sold based on genuine transactions.

“Again, there is the issue that genuine exporters are making their transaction while adhering to the letter of the law. They open their Nigerian Export Proceeds Form (NXP forms) and they pay their Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) Administrative charge, which is 0.5 per cent of FOB value.

“Government appointed inspection agencies inspect (at same level) and they issue Clean Certificate of Inspection (CCI) accordingly. They are being charged several fees, yet, they have to repatriate the funds back to the country within 180 days or face sanctions.”

He stated that if Nigeria wishes to respect basic laws of international trade, the repatriation period of 180 days should be reviewed and extended to accommodate such force majeure conditions, adding that the CBN should realise that in the event of problems in terms of quality, genuine exporters are covered by government- appointed inspection agencies that issue reports attesting that the goods have been inspected and passed as exportable quality.