The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dr. Olayemi Cardoso, has appealed to Nigerians to be patient. He says the apex bank is doing everything possible to strengthen the Naira.
The bank chief stated this while speaking at a public lecture at the CBN Centre of Excellence Hall, University of Ibadan, on Thursday, February 22.
The CBN governor, who was represented at the event by the Department of Monetary Policy, CBN, Dr. Usman Opanachi, said: “Anytime the Naira is on trial, the CBN is also on trial.
“We are working day and night to address the challenges and we hope things will work out”.
Indeed, the exchange rate features nearly in every sector. The exchange rate and inflation are very high now.
This is a problem. Excess demand for forex in Nigeria is a legendary problem.
Market Forces
It has just been there and over the years, the bank has implemented various strategies to address this problem.
Those strategies have only been able to provide some temporary relief.
The Central Bank of Nigeria does not supply or produce dollars. It is the naira that it produces.
Furthermore, he emphasised that the CBN management thinks when you hold the price of a commodity that is determined by forex down artificially, a time comes when you will not be able to do that.
Presently, the mindset of the new management of CBN is that the policies you have are intended to address the problem.
The approach the management has adopted is the market forces approach.
Also Read: CBN Focusing On FX Market To Improve Economy – Cardoso
At the moment, the bank allows the market forces to play a greater role in the determination of the price.
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