Emefiele: NEC did not direct CBN’s forex intervention

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, says the National Economic Council (NEC) did not direct the apex bank to implement its forex intervention.

Emefiele made this known while announcing the decision of the 225th monetary policy committee meeting on Tuesday.

CBN had earlier adjusted the nation’s foreign exchange policy, making forex available for tuition, personal travel and medical expenses to reduce the stress experienced by Nigerians seeking forex.

“The NEC did not direct because I have heard people say so, the central bank made a presentation on the Nigerian economy and forex market to NEC and the NEC thereafter advised that we should look into all the issues that were discussed on the foreign exchange market,” he said.

“Before then, we saw the rising trend in the exchange rate particularly at the parallel market and we had taken a decision that there was a need to reverse the trend and that is the reason we started the FX intervention.”

The governor expressed satisfied of the results acheived adding that he hoped that prices will further reduce.

“I am happy, indeed very gratified that those interventions have proved very positive. We’ve seen the rates converging and we are strongly optimistic that the rates will converge further,” he said.

“The fact that we have done this consistently for almost four to five weeks should tell everybody or those who doubt the strength of central bank to sustain this policy that they are taking a risk and they will lose in this bid to want to place a wrong bet on the direction that we are going.

“The direction is that there is a determination to see to the convergence of those rates and with what we have seen so far, we are very optimistic that those rates will converge.

“It is a program and I am happy to say that the program is looking good, in fact beyond our expectation and those who remain on the sideline doubting the level of CBN’s ability to sustain this policy are on the wrong side of the bet.”

He said the increased inter-bank rate is not an attempt to devalue the naira.

“The upward movement of inter-bank rate has nothing to do with adjustment. The market is not expected to be fixed. It will move sometimes based on trends as it is not expected to be a fixed market. It is not about an attempt to further weaken the currency,” he said.