CBN Adds Sugar And Wheat To Forex Restriction List

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday announced that it is commencing restriction of forex allocation for the importation of sugar and wheat into the country.

Godwin Emefiele, Governor of CBN, gave the hint during an inspection tour of the proposed $500 million Dangote sugar processing facility in Nasarawa state on Thursday. It was then confirmed today when the apex bank announced the restriction via a post on Twitter.

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Sugar and Wheat to go into our FX restriction list. We must work together to produce these items in Nigeria rather than import them . #Emefiele

— Central Bank of Nigeria (@cenbank) April 16, 2021

Emefiele, who said Nigeria spends between $600million to $1billion on the importation of sugar, said the apex bank will gradually begin to restrict foreign exchange to those who want to import sugar until Nigeria achieves self-sufficiency in sugar and wheat production.

“Let me state this, we are looking at sugar and wheat. We started a programme on milk about two years ago. Eventually, these products will go into our FX restriction list. We just want to see to what extent we see the traction that is coming from those who are currently importing these items,” the CBN governor said yesterday.

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In 2015, the apex bank restricted 41 items from accessing foreign exchange, adding that the measure was to encourage local production of the items and conserve Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

Some of the banned items are rice, cement, margarine, palm produce, beef, vegetables, poultry and eggs, wooden doors, and iron rods — including maize which was banned in 2020.

The CBN governor further assured that the apex bank will support Dangote’s sugar facility project, adding that the interest is to reduce reliance on importation.

Commenting on how much money CBN was supporting the project with, Emefiele said the $500million project is a huge investment of Dangote but the apex bank will come in through intervention through the banks for whatever loan that is required for the full execution of the project.