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Nigerians’ rush for foreign trips, studies behind Naira’s struggle – Emefiele
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has blamed the growing request for foreign school fees and travelling by Nigerians as one of the causes of the Naira struggle.
Emefiele, who stated this at the 57th annual bankers’ dinner organized by the Chartered Institute of bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos over the weekend, said Naira was struggling due to the increasing forex demand in the country and lack of foreign exchange receipt from crude oil sales into Nigeria’s reserves.
He noted that oil reserves have dried up steadily from $3.0 billion monthly in 2014 to an absolute zero dollar today.
Emefiele said: “The number of student visas issued to Nigerians by the United Kingdom alone has increased from an annual average of about 8,000 visas as of 2020 to nearly 66,000 in 2022, which implies an eight-fold surge to about $2.5 billion annually in study-related foreign exchange outflow to the UK alone.
READ ALSO: Buhari backs Emefiele on redesign of Naira
“It is against the backdrop of the worsening mismatch between foreign exchange market demand and supply, and the need to boost foreign exchange earnings that the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee initiated the RT200 programme in February 2022.”
He praised the impact of the programme for helping the bank meet official demands for dollars.
“So far, we have recorded and continue to record resounding success with the RT200 Programme.”
“Inflows through the programme in 2022 rose to about $1.6 billion and he said it could surpass $2.5 billion by year-end,” the CBN governor added.
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