CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said he will consider easing restrictions on the naira if demand for foreign exchange drops further. He made this assertion at a news conference on Africa hosted by the financial times in London on Monday.
The central bank had little choice in imposing the curbs in order to preserve foreign-currency reserves, he said.
“Once we have achieved a result we can allow ourselves to look at a freer market,” the governor said.
It can be recalled that the restrictions in FOREX have reduced liquidity, prompting JPMorgan Chase & Co. to remove the nation’s bonds from its emerging-market bond indexes last month.
The naira has traded at an average of N198.91 per dollar on the interbank market since the beginning of March after reaching a record low of N206.32 on February 12.
On Monday, the bank weakened its official exchange rate peg on the Lagos interbank market to N197 per dollar from N196.95 it set last week. It was the seventh adjustment since the regulator introduced tight currency controls in February.
Emefiele said Nigeria should focus on diversifying its economy and needed to manage what little hard currency reserves it had.
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