The President of the Federated Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN), Victor Iyama, said his group will inform President Muhammadu Buhari of the grave legal and economic implications of wrongful implementation of the “unfettered access” to foreign exchange domiciliary account as contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) circular of September 24, 2020.
This was disclosed at a press conference with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
Mr Iyama, while speaking at the conference, said that the CBN in its infinite wisdom needs to revise the obnoxious policy to encourage exportation of Nigerian farm produce across the globe in order to earn more foreign exchange.
According to him, “you cannot be regulating exporters” proceed why we are on deregulation, it’s not the way to repatriate people controlling funds.
“The CBN should be made to understand the pains that exporters are going through, we are not ready for our money to continue depreciating,
“But if it’s N100 to a dollar, we will sell, it is not justifiable as many people are sitting in their cosy environment building banks and others why the farmers are in pain,” he said.
“Farmers who are making losses can not encourage export until we have a stable price, what they expect us to do is reduce the price at the farm gate.
“Thereby making the farmers to suffer and they expect us to increase production and subsidize import, thereby discouraging export it’s not possible.
“The new policy by the CBN has actually prevented the foreign investors and Nigerians bringing in their funds into the country for investment,” he said.
“We are into business to make profit not to make losses and we operate within the laws of the country, it pays us to operate a stable foreign currency than operating a fluctuating one.
“If you have borrowed 500million, we would have lost, although you can still loss money due to price fluctuation we can’t be battling with that and be battling with currency policy, the excuses they always bring up is that the exporters are not bringing their money into Nigeria, and that is why we are saying, for those that did not repatriate their funds should be jailed for 5years and we will monitor the process.
“We have to be fair if we really want to grow export, this will encourage capital flight, which will prevent the foreign exchange liquidity.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
“The way to reduce this is the limitation of unwanted goods, so that everyone can source for their dollar, and in that way you will preserve your foreign exchange and more people will be able to export and farmers will be able to produce more”, he added.
He said “letters have been written to the Central Bank of Nigeria on seeing how the situation can be checked, but no response up until now.
“Exporters must have unfettered access to their money if we want exports to grow in the country.
“We are willing to work with the government to monitor those that refuse to repatriate their funds back into the country.
“We are here for the development of the country’s economy and farmers, adding that it is believed that the government is a listening government as this is about the survival of the country and it’s one of the major things that will change the face of our economy.
‘The banks cannot stop us but they are sanctioned by the CBN and off course the banks are happy because they are making more money as some of them are the beneficiaries. We still hope,” he said.
Source: allafrica.com
