Uche Henry

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the Federal Government, is currently developing initiative to bring about a friendlier foreign exchange (forex) regime in the country.

The Executive Secretary/CEO, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku, said this at Renaissance Capital’s 10th Annual Pan-Africa 1:1 Investor Conference held in Lagos recently.

Sadiku explained: “We are working on another initiative that is aimed at resulting in a much friendlier forex regime. The government’s intention is market-determined and we hope to achieve that sooner than later.”

She said the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I & E) forex window helped in enhancing investors’ confidence as well as in attracting significant inflows to the country. The move was to ensure that the country remains an attractive investment destination.

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“This is because we understand that in the context of the investor value chain, portfolio investors are important part of it and if we don’t get the right message to portfolio investors who send the right signal to the investing community, you will not achieve the target.

“The initiative is work in progress. Our task in this regard is more of advocacy, the same manner we advocated for the I & E window. NIPC is interested in seeing forex rates that would see more investments come to Nigeria in line with what the government has indicated it wants to do.

“There might be short-term flips and excitement, but in the context of the long-term fundamentals, Nigeria’s fundamentals remain strong. Nigeria has the ninth largest reserves of arable land in the world, in the context of agriculture. We are interested in agriculture and agro-processing and crop production based on the size of our arable land.”

In his presentation, the Global Chief Economist, Renaissance Capital, Mr. Charlie Robertson, urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to set in place, machineries and structures that would provide jobs for four million Nigerians entering the workforce each year.