The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday announced the lifting of the ban on importers of 43 items restricted from accessing foreign exchange.
The announcement is contained in a statement on the apex bank’s official account signed by Isa AbdulMumin, the Director, Corporate Communications.
By this lifting of the eight-year-old ban, importers of all the 43 items can now freely purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
The statement partly read, “Importers of all the 43 items previously restricted by the 2015 circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/010, and its addendums are now allowed to purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian foreign exchange market,” the statement said.
CBN said it would continue to promote orderliness and professional conduct by all Nigerian foreign exchange market participants to ensure market forces determined exchange rates on a willing buyer.
“The CBN reiterates that the prevailing foreign exchange rates should be referenced from platforms such as the CBN website, FMDQ, and other recognised or appointed trading systems to promote price discovery, transparency, and credibility in the FX rates.
AbdulMumin added that the bank would boost liquidity in the Nigerian foreign exchange market by interventions from time to time to ensure price stability.
He noted that when market liquidity improves, the interventions would “gradually decrease.”
In 2015, the federal government through the apex bank restricted 43 items from accessing Foreign Exchange (FX) from the Investors and Exporters (I & E) window, where items affected include cement and rice.
FULL LIST OF THE 43 ITEMS
- Rice
- Cement
- Margarine
- Palm kernel
- Palm oil products
- Vegetable oils
- Meat and processed meat products
- Vegetables and processed vegetable products
- Poultry and processed poultry products
- Tinned fish in sauce (Geisha)/sardine
- Cold-rolled steel sheets
- Galvanized steel sheets
- Roofing sheets
- Wheelbarrows
- Head pans
- Metal boxes and containers
- Enamelware
- Steel drums
- Steel pipes
- Wire rods (deformed and not deformed)
- Iron rods
- Reinforcing bars
- Wire mesh
- Steel nails
- Security and razor fencing and poles
- Wood particle boards and panels
- Wood fiberboards and panels
- Plywood boards and panels
- Wooden doors
- Toothpicks
- Glass and glassware
- Kitchen utensils
- Tableware
- Tiles-vitrified and ceramic
- Gas cylinders
- Woven fabrics
- Clothes
- Plastic and rubber products
- Polypropylene granules
- Cellophane wrappers and bags
- Soap and cosmetics
- Tomatoes/tomato pastes
- Eurobond/foreign currency bond/ share purchases
