The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dr. Olayemi Cardoso, has appealed to Nigerians to be patient as the apex bank is doing everything possible to ensure that the Naira is strengthened.
The bank chief stated this while speaking at a public lecture at the CBN Centre of Excellence Hall, University of Ibadan on Thursday, February 22.
The CBN governor, who was represented at the event by Dr. Usman Opanachi of the Department of Monetary Policy, CBN said
“Anytime the Naira is on trial, the CBN is also on trial. We are working day and night to address the challenges and we hope things will work out. The exchange rate features nearly in every sector. The exchange rate and inflation are very high now. The exchange rate is a problem. Excess demand for forex in Nigeria is a legendary problem. It has just been there and over the years, the bank has implemented various strategies to address this problem.
Those strategies have only been able to provide some temporary relief. The Central Bank of Nigeria does not supply or produce dollars. It is the naira that it produces. The CBN management thinks when you hold the price of a commodity that is determined by forex down artificially, a time comes when you will not be able to do that.
The thinking of the new management of CBN is that the policies you have are intended to address the problem. The approach the management has adopted is the market forces approach. The bank now allows the market forces to play a greater role in the determination of the price of naira.” he said