‘Buhari’s directive on food import part of CBN policies since 2016’

By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele Monday, said that the country would appeal the recent judgment of the United Kingdom, Business & Property Courts (the Commercial Court) which awarded a cumulative sum of $9bn against Nigeria and in favour of a foreign firm, Process & Industrial Developments Limited.

The central bank governor, disclosed this while speaking to State House correspondents at the sidelines of a  presidential retreat for ministers – designate, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Emefiele also assured investors across the globe not to entertain any fear over the matter adding that Nigeria has sufficient and strong grounds on the basis of which it could file a stay of execution and appeal.

He maintained that the federal government would aggressively follow through to ensure that the execution of that judgement was stayed and that the appeal succeeds at every level both within Nigeria and abroad. 

“It is important for me to use this opportunity to assure our friends, local and foreign investors who called to expressed solidarity with us, not to express concern but to say that there is no need for anybody to worry, ” he said.

The apex bank boss explained that  there were certain anomalies in the process leading to the award of the contract which was being looked into by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC).

”I am not scared at all and I think it is also important that this question has come up. Since the news about the judgement broke out late on Friday, we have been discussing with our counsel, and they have advised that there are sufficient and strong grounds on the basis of which we could file a stay of execution and also an appeal against that judgement. 

“We know that the implication of that judgement has some impact on monetary policy and that is why the CBN is going to step forward and very strongly too to ensure that we defend the country and defend the reserves of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

The CBN governor also clarified that  President Muhammadu  Buhari’s recent  directive on food importation was already on the bank’s management forex policies since 2016.

He explained: ”Mr. President’s comment on the issuing of forex to people who import food items into the country, is in the logic of CBN’s management foreign exchange policies that we started since 2016.

“If you recall, we started with about 41 items (food and non-food items), because we believe that those items can be produced in the country.

“As we stand today, there are about 43 items on that list and I will say substantially most of them are food items. We are basically saying, if we have a food item that can be produced in the country, why should we waste scare foreign exchange importing those items into the country, when those can be produced in the country.

He  also described the  attempt to misrepresent the comments of the President as very unfair and unfortunate. 

According to him,the move  by the president is  to strengthen the position of CBN, “to say that he believes in what the CBN has been doing since 2016 and there is need for us to reinforce that going forward.”

“I will say that to be honest, we would aggressively go more into the list of items that are being imported into the country, items that can be produced in Nigeria. 

“I will like to stress that we would ensure  that more of these items will get on the list of items that are going to be restricted from accessing foreign exchange in Nigerian banking industry not just from the CBN source.

” Because, I have heard some comments that maybe it’s about the CBN’s source, it is not the CBN’s source, we are saying you will not be able to access foreign exchange from the Nigerian banking industry because it is important for us to produce these items in Nigeria and we will follow through on them. 

The CBN governor maintained that there would not be an amendment to the forex restriction policy for some items.

“There will never be an amendment because the issue is this, why should we be exporting jobs to other countries? Today we are complaining that there is a high rate of unemployment, leading to some extent the level of insecurity in the country, why should we allow people to import food that can be produced in the country?”

He emphasised that Nigeria needs to improve wealth in her rural communities, insisting, “we will not change course, we will even be more aggressive on this programme.”

On whether the President’s directive  will affect the  Africa Free Trade Continental Area Agreement Emefiele explained that it would not affect the content of the AfCFTA. 

He said, ”in any case the AfCFTA is an agreement that is ongoing, the terms of engagement are still being discussed and negotiated.

” The important thing is that Nigeria needs to stand as the largest economy in Africa and the largest populated country in Africa, we need to stand and dictate the terms under which we want to be in it and this is what we are staying.  

The CBN governor said it’s wrong and inappropriate that an item that could be produced in Nigeria should be imported into Nigeria.

 At this time, Emefiele said “we need to create jobs for our country, for the youths. 

“We yearn for growth and the only way we can really accelerate growth in Nigeria between now and next four years is to see to it that items that can be produced in Nigeria are indeed produced in Nigeria rather than being imported into the country.”