By Taiye Odewale Abuja
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Godwin Emefi ele, yesterday said the country’s foreign reserves has risen from over $27 billion it was at the beginning of the recession in June, last year, to over $31 billion now. He assured Nigerians that the country would get out of economic recession “latest by the end of June this year” based on emerging positive economic indicators to that eff ect. Emefi ele, who gave the assurance at the National Assembly while fi elding questions from journalists after a closed-door meeting with the leadership of the Senate, said one of the indicators “is the downward trend in the parallel market as regards the value of the Naira against the dollar which has appreciated from as higher as N525 per dollar to between N370 to N380 now.”
Other indicators, according to him, are the already confi rmed reduction in the rate of infl ation by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). He said: “Central Bank has been involved in some form of intensive interventions in the foreign exchange market and this has fortunately resulted in a downward trend in the parallel market price of foreign exchange from as higher as N525 to as low as N370. Right now it hovers between N370 and N380.
“I think it’s an opportunity for me to say that we are going to continue this intervention because the reserve looks very good as I speak to you our reserve stands at above $31bn and that provides us enough of fi repower or ammunition to be able to defend the currency and we will do so with all intensity to ensure that foreign exchange is procured by everybody. “We have started to see a downward trend even in prices of goods and commodities and you have also must observe that infl ation is also trending downward as confi rmed by NBS.
We are very much optimistic that by the end of the second quarter very latest third quarter this year, we should be out of recession that we are in right now.” He assured that the downward trend in the parallel market in favour of the Naira would be sustained by the CBN through its needed interventions and in particular, through the policy of willing buyer and willing seller basis. “I think what is important is that last week we brought out an announcement which is meant to encourage our foreign investor community to get involved as well in the foreign exchange market.
“It is the market or window that is opened for them to infl ow their foreign exchange and come into the market on what we called a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis in which case there will be no form of any price intervention by anybody and indeed even including the CentralBank. “Indeed, with the kind of fi repower that we have, we are also going to play in that market to ensure that as the prices move on based on the managed fl oat regime that we run that we should be able to control the price based on willing buyer and willing seller basis.”
