The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele said this week that Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote’s industrial complex in the commercial capital of Lagos will trade as much as $6 billion a year of foreign exchange to the West African nation’s central bank in 2 years time. Bloomberg reports
The CBN Boss further said:
“We expect that by the time these projects are completed, it will not only meet the needs of our domestic requirement,” “By the time it is completed, he will be exporting these products to the point where he will be selling foreign exchange to Nigeria, to Nigerians and to the Central Bank of Nigeria to the tune of almost about $6 billion a year.”
“You can imagine what will happen to the savings in foreign exchange” by the time the refinery, petrochemical and fertilizer plants are completed.” “We can’t wait, we need him to do this very fast so we can begin to save foreign exchange,”
However,the apex bank has resorted to holding the naira between 197 and 199 per dollar since March , 2015 introducing trading curbs to conserve reserves and stem a rout after it fell to a record 206.32 in February.
While President Muhammadu Buhari has supported the governor’s measures, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde last week called for more flexibility in the monetary policy.
