41 Items Ban: FG Loses N455.9bn

The federal government of Nigeria has lost about N455.9billion, from June 2015 till date, to the foreign exchange policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that the amount which should have accrued to coffers of the government as revenue, is lost following the ban placed on 41 items from accessing the foreign exchange.

It would be recalled that the CBN banned certain items from the list of those to access the Foreign Exchange. The banned items include rice, cement, margarine, palm kernel/palm oil products, vegetables oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vegetable products.

Others are Poultry chicken, eggs, turkey private airplanes/jets, Indian incense, tinned fish in sauce(geisha)/sardines, cold rolled steel sheets, galvanized steel sheets, roofing sheets, wheelbarrows, head pans.

Barely two years after the government enforced the ban, industry watchers said it was counterproductive insisting that it denies government of huge revenue.

Industry experts who spoke with LEADERSHIP Sunday urged the CBN to review the policy on the 41 items restricted from the official foreign exchange market as it had stifled production and forced many firms out of business.

Leadership, January 29, 2017

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now