The World Bank has said that the Central Bank of Nigeria needs to step up efforts to ease pressure on the foreign exchange market, to meet the high demand for hard currency in the country.
The apex bank, last week, resumed the gradual sale of forex to licensed bureau de change operators in the country, just to ease the pressure on the naira.
World Bank Country Director, Shubham Chaudhuri, told journalists in Lagos that strong actions and a clear commitment from the central bank would go a long way in facilitating a quick recovery.
CBN stopped the sale of forex to BDC operators on March 27, 2020 as the country faced lockdown due to the Coronavirus Disease. Since then, the exchange rate at the black market has gone from N395/$1 to N480/$1 five months after.
The naira’s trouble also escalated due to the downward trend of the price of crude, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the nation’s forex earnings.
According to analysts, the Azura power plant, partly financed by the private-lending arm of the World Bank, could default on its dollar-denominated debt because of dollar scarcity.
“The Azura case is just one example of the difficulties that a number of established foreign and domestic private firms in Nigeria have had in accessing forex to meet their business and contractual obligations,” Chaudhuri said over the weekend.
Despite the resumption of forex to BDCs across the country, naira is still in a staggering recovery.
According to data obtained from Abokifx, a forex tracking website, naira is still selling at N460/$ as of Monday, September 14, signifying only about N20 appreciation after eight days.
