ABCON urges CBN to sustain reforms amid U.S. tariff impact

Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sustain its reforms against inflation and Foreign Exchange (FX) volatility, especially after the recent U.S. tariff imposition on Nigerian exports.

President of ABCON, Dr Aminu Gwadabe, made the call in an interview with our reporter in Lagos on Monday.

Recall that the CBN on Friday injected a total of $197.71 million into the foreign exchange market through sales to authorised dealers to curb FX volatility.

Gwadabe commended the prompt response of the CBN to the 14 per cent tariff imposition on Nigerian exports to America.

He said the tariff hike would make Nigerian products more expensive and less attractive to America.

This, he added, invariably would result in lower exports and a significant loss of revenue to the nation’s economy.

He added that the impact of the U.S. tariff hike has also resulted in further depreciation of the Naira in the official market.

“As we speak now, the Naira is weaker in the official market than in the parallel markets.

The level at the official market rate is N1,635 per dollar, while the rate in the parallel market is N1,570 per dollar.

“It is, therefore, important for the CBN to be proactive and ensure the sustainability of stability in the market,” he said.

The ABCON boss urged the CBN to ensure that liquidity is not only injected into their interbank market but also to the critical retail end of the market.

He said this would help to meet the demand of invisible transactions and small and medium-sized enterprises’ FX needs.

He said the challenge is about liquidity, hence the need for concerted efforts toward the diversification of the nation’s foreign exchange sources.

“To this end, Nigeria, being a mono-cultural economy that relies heavily on petro-dollar receipts, should embrace more partners like India, African markets, and China in the export of its single and most important commodity.

“The CBN should enforce banks to implement the sale of their interbank proceeds to the BDCs to curtail any volatility.

“There is a need to support local production of export commodities to mitigate our reliance on oil,” he said.

Gwadabe described the recent trade tariff adopted by the Trump administration to protect America as a “global tension that is raging like wildfire across jurisdictions”.

He commended the consistent intervention of CBN in the FX market to address inflation, uncertainty, and FX volatility, especially in a difficult period of policy reforms