The Central Bank of
Nigeria, (CBN), says autonomous source such as exporters and correspondent banks now control the price of dollars in banks and the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment.
In a monitored programe on NTA by our correspondent on Friday, the Director, Corporate Communication of CBN, Mr Muazu Ibrahim stated that although the price of the Naira remained stable at N197 to a dollar and 284 to a pound sterling at the interbank market, it was hovering at the parallel market.
The Tide gathered that the Naira changed for N373 to a dollar and N500 pound sterling last Friday in Abuja.
Ibrahim said customers would also find FOREX expensive in the banks or while using their debit cards abroad because the FOREX got by banks from the CBN was not sufficient for all transactions.
He explained that for this reason, banks reserved the FOREX they got for development transactions, especially to manufacturers looking to import necessary materials to aid the real sectors of the economy.
The CBN Communications boss explained that although the apex bank had not put a ban on accessing FOREX for school fees or medicals, it was not a priority so banks might use their discretion to allocate or not to allocate FOREX for such.
He added that there was no ban or restrictions, but priorities would be given to demand for raw materials, plants and machinery.
On the issue of hike in food prices since the CBN excluded importers of 41 items including rice, processed meat, vegetables, toothpick amongst others, from sourcing Forex, Ibrahim said it was only temporary.
He concluded by advising Nigerians to think Nigerian, act Nigerian and buy Nigerian by patronizing made in Nigeria goods.