The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has been particular about the importation of certain goods into the country mostly due to FX scarcity. The CBN list of items that banned from accessing forex in Nigeria is soon going to include sugar and wheat.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele said in a Twitter post that the bank will add sugar and wheat to its FX ban list. According to the post, Nigeria can produce these items rather than importing them.
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The Twitter post by Emefiele reads: “Sugar and Wheat to go into our FX restriction list. We must work together to produce these items in Nigeria rather than import them.”
These items have been under scrutiny for a few years now if they should go on the FX restriction list. According to Emefiele who also said that the CBN will support Dangote industries on its $500 million sugar processing facility, these items will eventually go on the list.
During a tour of the Dangote sugar processing facility in Nassarawa state, the CBN governor said that the project will get its support for loans through interventions.
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The sugar processing project can potentially create thousands of jobs in the country. Aside from that, it will eliminate sugar importation cost which is about $600m to $1 billion annually according to Emefiele.
The challenges of meeting up importation and dollar demands is also a major influencing factor in the FX restriction decisions.