Financial Experts Commend CBN over New Forex Allocation Policy

 

The stakeholders gave the commendation in separate interviews in Lagos on Wednesday.

They said that the guidelines would strengthen efforts of the CBN and the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) to check capital flight and “round tripping”.

Mr Chris Namedia, a former director of CBN, said that the new foreign exchange guidelines would assist the CBN to plug all financial leakages and waste of scarce resources.

He also urged government to reduce bureaucracy so that the “logic and spirit behind the guidelines will be actualised”.

Namedia said that the guidelines would improve the knowledge of NSC officials on goods verification and compliance with procedures on import and export.

He said that the new rules demanded that competent workers be engaged by the NSC and CBN.

 Mr Oluwole Ibikunle, Managing Director, Boaz Strategy and Management Consultants, also said that the new foreign exchange policy would check capital flight and reduce sharp practices in foreign exchange allocation.

 He said that the new policy would also save funds and boost the nation’s foreign reserves if properly managed.

 Ibikunle advised the CBN to support the new policy with an implementation team that would enforce its directives to commercial banks.

 “The ability of the apex bank to impose the policy would reduce malpractices and bring about sanity in foreign exchange market,” Ibikunle said.

 Dr. Samuel Nzekwe, a former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), described the new rules as a welcome development.

 Nzekwe said that the inability of the apex bank to effectively regulate foreign exchange market was due to the absence of an enforcement team.

 He suggested that the government should extend its new interest in managing export of petroleum products to other areas.

 Nzekwe said that the incidence of capital flight would be reduced if government could bring down inflation rate.

 Reports say that that the CBN has directed banks to get verification certificates from NSC on behalf of their clients before foreign exchange could be approved for them.

 The CBN said that the development was to check capital flight and “round-tripping”.