We Exited Recession Due To Forex Ban On 41 Items – CBN Gov

Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has revealed that Nigeria’s exit from its last recession was due to forex restriction on 41 items.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had restricted forex from importers of Rice, toothpicks and 39 other items.

Nigeria’s recession, which began in 2016, had lasted for about five consecutive quarters, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

But explaining how the country exited the economic downfall, Emefiele said at the opening ceremony of a seminar for finance correspondents and business editors in Lokoja, Kogi State, that the nation was able to escape the menace because it restricted the importation of certain items.

“In today’s world, countries have used trade protection repeatedly as a policy to resolve negative perceptions and shocks in their respective countries,” the governor, who was represented by Moses Tule, director of CBN’s monetary policy department, said.

“In other words, should Nigeria, with an insatiable taste for foreign goods to the detriment of the domestic economic realities, throw its borders open to the indiscriminate importation of goods and services?

“This was the prevailing condition in Nigeria before the introduction of restriction of official foreign exchange for the importation of 41 items.

“The implementation of the (restriction of forex for the importation) 41 items, in addition to the other complementary macroeconomic policies, no doubt, was effective in lifting the Nigerian economy out of recession,” said the CBN governor.