The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lifted the ban on 43 food and non-food items previously restricted from accessing foreign exchange from the official window.
This was contained in a statement issued by its director of corporate communications, Isa AbdulMumin, on Thursday.
“Importers of all the 43 items previously restricted by the 2015 circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/010 and its addendums are now allowed to purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market,” the apex bank said in the statement.
The CBN statement failed to give reasons for lifting the FX restriction on the items.
The items hitherto banned from access FX are rice, cement, margarine, palm kernel, palm oil products, vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vegetable products, poultry and processed poultry products, tinned fish in sauce (Geisha)/sardine, cold rolled steel sheets and galvanised steel sheets.
Other items on the list include roofing sheets, wheelbarrows, head pans, metal boxes and containers, enamelware, steel drums, steel pipes, wire rods (deformed and not deformed), iron rods, reinforcing bars, wire mesh, steel nails, security and razor fencing and poles, wood particle boards and panels, wood fibreboards and panels, plywood boards and panels, wooden doors, toothpicks, glass and glassware and kitchen utensils.
Also on the list are tableware, tiles-vitrified and ceramic, gas cylinders, woven fabrics, clothes, plastic and rubber products, polypropylene granules, cellophane wrappers and bags, soap and cosmetics, tomatoes/tomato pastes and Eurobond/foreign currency bond/ share purchases.
Recall in June 2015, the CBN published a list of imported goods and services that will not be eligible for foreign exchange in the Nigerian foreign currency market through a circular. The list which was originally 41 was updated to include two more items.
The aim of imposing the foreign exchange restriction on the items was to encourage local production, sustain the stability of the naira and ensure the efficient utilisation of forex.
