Business operators and stakeholders in the productive sector of the economy are lamenting the difficulties they go through in accessing foreign exchange to do their business.
They noted that the situation became worse when the Central Bank of Nigeria placed a ban on Bureau De Change not to deal on forex.
Speaking on the issue, a businessman, Jerry Wanodi, said that the situation has become more worrisome since the CBN wielded a big hammer on BDC.
According to him, due to the failure of bank to extend forex to the importers in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, the situation has led to many equipment importers defaulting in payments to their foreign technical partners.
He said that the demand for forex by manufacturers had not been completely met by the banks, saying this has led to  sourcing dollars from the parallel market.
“Since the CBN’s decision not to extend forex to the BDC’s directly, the rates have been increasing, affecting the bottom line of manufacturers and other business owners.
“We advise that critical raw materials that cannot be sourced locally should be supported by special forex intervention till when the country can build enough capacity to produce them locally,” Wanodi said.
Also speaking, another businessman, Mr Collins Uzoigwo, who imports perishable agriculture products from Republic of Benin, said that forex problem was really giving them serious challenge because of the exchange rate as the value to dollar is making the commodity very high, adding that such is threatening the existence of their business.
“I have always based my supply on the black market as getting forex from the bank is a challenge because after going to the bank, after all said and done, it is effort wasted.
“I depend on Cefa because I buy from Republic of Benin. We were buying 1,000 Cefa then for N270, but now 1,000 Cefa is N1,000 which is not supposed to be.
“We that are importing, it is not a good challenge for us because the dollar controls the rate,” Uzoigwo said.
According to him, the currency in Benin has remained constant while Nigerian Naira has continued to experience fluctuations.
Narrating his own experience, another businessman, Ade Abdusalamof  Ayinla Nigeria Limited, an exporter of finished goods, said the environment is not conducive for export as of now. 
“When you cannot export to get the dollars, where will the dollars come from? We export finished Nigerian goods; we have manufacturing firms who produce and ours is to export finished goods such as toiletries, cloths, provisions, rugs, home items.
 “If you want to get dollars in the bank, it is the banks that will introduce one aboki (parallel market operator) to you and tell you to go and meet the aboki and they will facilitate how you are going to meet the aboki. Yet, CBN will just sit down and be barking like a toothless bull dog.
“The reality on ground is that most of these banks are the ones that will give you the contacts of abokis.
“The government should not sit down in Abuja and set policies. They should come down to the market and they will get firsthand information. The real export is in the market. I don’t know how they sit down in Abuja and get their data,” he lamented.

By: Corlins Walter