By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has promised to fund the 60-day forward sales and foreign exchange requests from the agricultural, aviation, machinery and raw materials sectors in the next few days.
The Nigeria’s apex bank, in a statement issued on Wednesday, also said it would guarantee letters of credit opened for importers to ship in their goods into the country.
The CBN explained that it was taking this move in fulfilment of its pledge to fund forward sales under the new flexible foreign exchange regime.
In the plan, importers in the agricultural sector will get 62 per cent of their requests, which is the largest, while those in the machinery segment will have 53 per cent of their requests.
According to the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor, other sectors to be considered are those in the aviation industry (airlines), who will get 32 percent of their request settled and importers of raw materials.
Mr explained that the CBN was doing this to develop Nigeria’s economy.
