Economy
Nigeria’s Current Sources of FX Inflows Unreliable—Emefiele
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has expressed worry over the sources of foreign exchange (FX) inflows in Nigeria, describing them as unreliable as they are prone to external forces, which hurt the nation’s economy.
Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, has struggled to strengthen its legal tender, the Naira, in the forex market due to a shortage of foreign currencies to meet the demand of end-users.
Despite the prices of crude oil rising on the global market, the country’s external reserves have continued to deplete because the apex bank dips its hands into the purse to defend the local currency in the FX market.
Nigeria relies on crude oil sales to earn forex but it has not been able to take advantage of the recent rise in the price of the commodity as well as the war in Ukraine instigated by Russia.
A few months ago, the CBN, in an effort to change the narrative, launched an initiative called CBN RT 200 aimed at generating $200 billion from non-oil exports in the coming years.
The central bank was in Lagos on Thursday for a Non-Oil Export Summit and the CBN chief stated that country’s foreign exchange challenges were beyond the powers of monetary policy, noting that efforts are being made to manage both the demand and supply side to meet forex obligations.
Attributing the current challenges of the Nigerian economy to a combination of local and global factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, delays in global logistic value chains and local security challenges, he expressed concern that most of Nigeria’s current sources of FX inflows were unreliable and prone to fluctuations of global economic developments.
Mr Emefiele noted that the global economic challenges had impacted food production among others and had exerted undue pressure on the economy, thereby exposing the fragility of the Nigerian economy and making macroeconomic management very difficult.
“These problems call for urgent design and steadfast implementation of other supportive, structural, and complementary policies that are broad-based, coordinated and focused on complementing the work of the monetary authority,” he noted.
Reiterating the need for a more diversified economy, Mr Emefiele said Nigeria could be great without crude oil, the global price of which the country had no control over.
He, therefore, urged all stakeholders to regroup by working together to reposition Nigeria on a growth trajectory by taking diversification of the economy much more seriously, emphasising that Nigeria had very little choice left but to look inwards and find innovative solutions to its challenges.
In order to avoid sudden adjustments to Nigeria’s economic life, he said there was the need to focus on strategies that can help the country earn more stable and sustainable inflows of foreign exchange.
“We would need to follow the best practices of other countries and ensure that we protect ourselves a little bit from factors that are beyond our immediate control. This is the time to start working in synergy for the good of our nation.
“This is the time for us as a Banking Community to do more and support exporters who have been flying the flag of Nigeria in the international market space,” Mr Emefiele declared.
Although he admitted the enormity of the ultimate goal of $200 billion in non-oil exports over the medium term, Mr Emefiele expressed confidence that the goal was attainable, given the fact that many countries less endowed than Nigeria had achieved much in the field of agriculture.
To underscore his point, he said within a short period of implementing the Non-Oil FX Rebate Scheme, the country had recorded a significant increase in non-oil export repatriation, adding that eligible exporters had been paid over N3.5 billion in rebates.
In his remarks, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, lauded the CBN and other actors in the banking sector for supporting the efforts by the Federal Government and states, especially Lagos, to boost growth in the economy.
Mr Sanwo-Olu expressed optimism that the Lekki Deep Seaport, which he described as the largest in West Africa, will be handed over for use at the end of 2022, thereby providing enormous opportunities to exporters to ply their trade and by extension improve the export earnings of the country.
As part of efforts to decongest the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports in Lagos, the Governor said the state government was awaiting approval for work to begin on the Badagry Ports in the Western part of Lagos.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Pressure further mounted on the Nigerian Naira in the different segments of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, making its value to shrink against the United States Dollar at the close of business.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the domestic currency crashed against its American counterpart during the session by 0.18 per cent or N2.73 to settle at N1,552.78/$1, in contrast to Monday’s closing price of N1,550.05/1.
But against the Pound Sterling and the Euro, the local currency traded flat in the official market yesterday at N1,906.98/£1 and N1,613.48/€1, respectively.
As for the black market segment, the Naira weakened against the Dollar on Tuesday by N5 to sell for N1,670/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N1,665/$1.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market heaved a sigh of relief during the session as President Donald Trump created a crypto task force dedicated to “developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.”
The task force will be led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, a long-time advocate for the crypto industry, and will work closely with the crypto industry to develop regulations. This is after Mr Gary Gensler, an opponent of crypto, officially stepped down as chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after Mr Trump’s term started.
The task force will also work with Congress, providing “technical assistance” as it crafts crypto regulations.
Solana (SOL) recorded a 9.2 per cent growth to sell at $257.09, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 7.6 per cent to $0.36789, Ripple (XRP) added 4.0 per cent to finish at $3.18, and Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 3.7 per cent to $105,515.03.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 2.8 per cent to close at $699.01, Cardano jumped by 2.1 per cent to trade at $0.9972, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 2.0 per cent to settle at $3,308.21, and Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.5 per cent to end at $116.72, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The price of the Brent crude oil grade went below the $80 mark on Tuesday after it shed 86 cents or 1.1 per cent to trade at $79.29 per barrel after the US President, Mr Donald Trump, signaled the possibility of his country boosting its oil production.
This move raised concerns of higher US output in a market widely expected to be oversupplied this year, with the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures falling by $1.99 or 2.6 per cent during the session to $75.89 per barrel.
On his first day in office, the US President signed an executive order to unleash America’s energy by easing the barriers to oil and gas extraction and production and revoking a series of climate orders by former President Joe Biden.
As pledged in the campaign, the executive order follows the declaration of a national energy emergency.
The declaration includes measures to expedite energy infrastructure delivery, and emergency approvals by agencies “to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including, but not limited to, on Federal lands.”
This will likely confirm expectations that the oil market will be oversupplied this year after weak economic activity and energy transition efforts weighed heavily on demand in top-consuming nations the US and China.
President Trump also said he was considering imposing 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico from February 1, rather than on his first day in office as promised.
The delay helped ease concerns of an immediate tightening of the market among US refiners, many of which are geared to process the type of crude oil supplied by these countries.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reiterated on Tuesday its expectations for oil prices to decline both this year and next.
On its part, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) projects robust demand growth in the world both this year and next.
In 2025, OPEC says demand is set to grow by 1.4 million barrels per day leaving its projection unchanged from the December report.
However, losses were also limited after the US president said his administration would “probably” stop buying oil from Venezuela. The U.S. is the second-biggest buyer of Venezuelan oil after China.
Also weighing on prices on Tuesday was the potential end to the shipping disruption in the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Houthis said on Monday they will limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel-linked ships provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented.
By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rallied on Tuesday by 0.75 per cent after investors intensified their demand for local stocks.
It was a tough battle between the bulls and the bears during the session, but the former overcame by a whisker after the bourse recorded 29 appreciating equities and 28 depreciating equities, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
The growth posted by Customs Street yesterday could be attributed to the appetite for MTN Nigeria shares, which chalked up 10.00 per cent to settle at N256.30.
SCOA Nigeria appreciated by 9.93 per cent to N2.99, Omatek grew by 9.88 per cent to 89 Kobo, Universal Insurance rose by 8.70 per cent to 75 Kobo, and CAP gained 8.52 per cent to trade at N47.75.
Conversely, Secure Electronic Technology lost 9.88 per cent to quote at 73 Kobo, Abbey Mortgage Bank declined by 9.09 per cent to N3.30, Sunu Assurances tumbled by 8.21 per cent to N6.15, Deap Capital slumped by 7.08 per cent to N1.05, and C&I Leasing depreciated by 6.82 per cent to N4.10.
A total of 440.3 million equities valued at N12.0 billion exchanged hands in 13,087 deals compared with the 1.3 billion equities worth N17.7 billion transacted in 13,891 deals on Monday, representing a decline in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 66.79 per cent, 32.20 per cent and 5.79 per cent, respectively.
Lasaco Assurance ended the session as the most traded stock after it sold 108.1 million units valued at N338.7 million, Access Holdings traded 44.0 million units for N1.1 billion, UBA exchanged 27.9 million units worth N945.7 million, Zenith Bank transacted 26.7 million units for N1.3 billion, and Universal Insurance traded 22.7 million units valued at N16.7 million.
On Tuesday, the insurance, banking and industrial goods sectors jumped by 1.03 per cent, 0.30 per cent, and 0.03 per cent, respectively, and the consumer goods and energy counters lost 0.38 per cent and 0.36 per cent apiece.
The All-Share Index (ASI) went up yesterday by 767.63 points to 103,137.99 points from 102,370.36 points and the market capitalisation increased by N472 billion to N63.333 trillion from N62.861 trillion.
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