The Central Bank of Nigeria has called on exporters to repatriate export proceeds to boost foreign exchange inflow in the country.
The Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele made the call on Tuesday, while making a presentation at Zenith’s Bank’s 2021 export seminar.
He said: “We would also like to urge existing exporters, that they endeavour to repatriate their export proceeds as required by law.
“The CBN guarantees that exporters will have unfettered access to their export proceeds and we do expect that exporters would reciprocate the good gestures of the bank by repatriating their export proceeds to improve foreign exchange inflows into the country.”
The CBN governor added that the Nigerian economy was able to emerge out of the recession in the fourth quarter of 2020, following two-quarters of negative growth.
According to him, there are significant interventions by the monetary and fiscal authorities in Nigeria, aimed at stimulating consumption expenditure.
He stated that a strong and well-balanced recovery would require additional contributions from the private sector in supporting greater growth of our non-oil exports.
“The volatility in the oil markets which has exposed the Nigerian economy to significant exogenous shocks, along with the growing trajectory towards lesser use of fossil fuels in the near future, by some advanced and emerging market countries makes it imperative that we work to significantly improve our non-oil exports earnings,” he said.
He explained that developing trade portals that could support instant sales of goods manufactured in Nigeria to consumers in other parts of Africa was one step that could help to support the creation of jobs in Nigeria and improve foreign exchange inflows for the country.
He said: “I would like to encourage them to also leverage their presence in other parts of Africa, to support Nigerian businesses seeking to expand into new markets in Africa, by providing trade facilities to those with strong potential for growth.”