The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday said that the reduction in foreign reserves from $47 billion to about $40 billion was not an issue to worry about, as the apex bank was making the right investments with it.
This comes as the Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, of the CBN retained the Monetary Policy Rate at 13.5%.
Mr Emefiele, at a post-MPC briefing, explained that the committee unanimously voted to retain the MPR after the rates were reduced from 14 percent to 13.5 percent in March 2019, the first time the MPR was reduced since July 2016.
On the impact on domestic food prices of the recent closure of Nigeria’s land borders, the CBN Governor said that the committee noted that any upward price movement arising from the closure was reactionary and therefore temporary.
“Moreover, significant investment has been made over the last three years to sustainably increase domestic food supply. It noted some of the key initiatives in this direction to include: the Commodity Development Initiatives, designed to finance the agricultural value chain of ten 10 commodities namely cassava, cocoa, cotton, rice, tomato, poultry, livestock and dairy, fish, oil palm and maize, which has received N171.66 billion in funding,” Mr Emefiele explained.
