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
The Chairman of BUA Group, Mr Abdul Samad Rabiu, has pledged to further crash the prices of rice and other food items to alleviate high food costs in Nigeria.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, Mr Rabiu said BUA Foods keyed into that policy and was able to import quite a lot of wheat, maize and rice.
The billionaire commended President Tinubu for granting waiver on imported food items, saying that his “foresight” helped crash food prices in the country.
Recall that in July 2024, Mr Tinubu’s administration announced the suspension of customs duties on imported food items to stem food inflation.
“At the time food prices were really very high last year. For example, the price of rice was about N100,000 or thereabout per 50 kilo bag. The flour was about N80,000 per bag and maize was about N60,000 per 50 kilo bag, and pasta above N20,000 per Carton. So, what we did was, we keyed into that policy and BUA was able to import quite a lot of wheat, maize and rice.
“The moment the shipment started coming, we started processing, we crushed the prices of some of these commodities. And today I’m happy to inform you that the price of rice is about N60,000 from what it was last year at N110,000. Flour is today N55,000 Naira per 50 kilo bag.
“Maize is about N30,000. And this happened because of Mr President’s foresight and vision by introducing that one-off duty waiver for a period of six months, and with that, we’ve been able to bring down the prices of these commodities,” Mr Rabiu said.
He also said that the Rice Millers Association has come together to address the issue of hoarding by some companies, adding that the association will not allow any of its members to hoard rice.
“What we are doing as rice Millers is that we want to ensure that rice Millers are not buying and hoarding paddy, although at the end of the day, it’s quite difficult to stop that. But what is happening is that once they know that there is rice availability imported, because BUA has imported enough rice to last us until the end of the year…”
He also noted that BUA foods will continue to support the efforts of the government in ensuring that food prices are down.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange returned to the green territory on Thursday with a 0.36 per cent growth, which increased the market capitalisation of the bourse by N6.58 billion to N1.846 trillion from the previous day’s N1.840 trillion.
In the same vein, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) went up by 11.23 points during the trading session to 3,153.87 points from the previous session’s 3,142.64 points.
Data showed that four securities were responsible for the jump recorded by the unlisted securities market yesterday, overpowering the decline suffered by a stock.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc topped the gainers’ group after its value increased by N3.24 to close at N40.98 per unit versus the previous closing value of N37.74 per unit, Geo-Fluids Plc added 21 Kobo to settle at N2.31 per share compared with midweek’s price of N2.10 per share, UBN Property Plc gained 20 Kobo to end at N2.16 per unit versus N1.96 per unit, and Food Concepts Plc grew by 12 Kobo to finish at N1.41 per share, in contrast to Wednesday’s value of N1.29 per share.
On the flip side, the share price of Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) went down by 99 Kobo to trade at N25.99 per unit versus N26.98 per unit.
The volume of trades during the trading day was down by 82.2 per cent to 304,374 units from 1.7 million units, the value of transactions fell by 91.6 per cent to N5.2 million from N61.7 million, and the number of deals decreased by 52.5 per cent to 29 deals from 61 deals.
At the close of business, Impresit Bakolori Plc was the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 536.9 million units worth N524.7 million, followed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 266.4 million units valued at N470.6 million, and Okitipupa Plc with 153.6 million units sold for N4.9 billion.
Okitipupa Plc retained its position as the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 153.6 million units valued at N4.9 billion, trailed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 21.7 million units sold for N833.4 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units worth N524.7 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Despite the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealing on Thursday that inflation rate in April 2025 in Nigeria cooled to 23.71 per cent, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, the Nigerian Naira performed woefully in the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market against the United States Dollar yesterday.
The statistics office said the headline inflation figure for last month represents a 0.52 per cent decline from the 24.23 per cent recorded in March 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, inflation growth slowed considerably, printing at 1.86 per cent in April compared to 3.90 per cent recorded in March.
Amid this encouraging inflation data, the domestic currency lost 0.21 per cent or N3.40 against the greenback in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) during the session to close at N1,600.15/$1, in contrast to the N1,596.75/$1 it was traded on Wednesday.
Similarly, it tumbled against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N1.10 to settle at N2,126.47/£1 versus midweek’s rate of N2,125.37/£1 and slumped against the Euro by 87 Kobo to finish at N1,791.25/€1 compared with the N1,790.38/€1 it traded a day earlier.
Also, the value of the Naira declined against the Dollar in the parallel market on Thursday by N5 to end at N1,625/$1 versus the preceding day’s rate of N1,620/$1.
As for cryptocurrency market, it was mixed as the US Federal Reserve Chair, Mr Jerome Powell, said at a conference on Thursday that longer term interest rates are likely to be higher.
This news was calmed by investors banking on recent tariff developments as the US negotiates agreements with other countries. It has reached deals with the United Kingdom and China and could reach one with India soon.
Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.5 per cent to sell at $103,941.43, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 1.5 per cent to $100.34, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 1.3 per cent to $657.44, and Ethereum (ETH) improved by 0.6 per cent to $2,588.88.
But, Ripple (XRP) crumbled by 3.2 per cent to $2.41, Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 0.9 per cent to $0.2263, Solana (SOL) went down by 0.6 per cent to $172.63, and Cardano (ADA) slipped by 0.3 per cent to $0.7830, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
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