http://www.financialslot.com/2017/05/04/fg-mulls-relaxing-forex-restrictions-41-items/


There are indications that the Federal Government may encourage CBN to relax the ban imposed on 41 items from accessing foreign exchange from the official window.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who disclosed this in an email obtained by Bloomberg, said the government would consider “policy-driven restrictions” to promote local manufacturing of 41 items, such as rice and toothpicks.

He said: “In stabilizing the macroeconomic environment, we have focused on aligning fiscal with monetary policy and nudging the Central Bank toward the objective of more market-determined exchange rates.”

In 2015, the CBN banned importers of 41 items from having access to foreign exchange from the official window, in an attempt to support the naira and encourage local manufacturing.

Items banned included; Rice, Cement, Margarine, Palm kernel products and vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vegetable products, poultry products, private airplanes and jets, Indian incense, Tinned fish in sauce, cold rolled steel sheets, Galvanized steel sheets, roofing sheets, wheelbarrows, Head pans, Metal boxes and containers, Enamelware, Steel drums, Steel Pipes, Wire rods, Iron rods, Steel nails, Security and razor wire, Wire mesh, Wood particle boards and panels, Wood fiber boards and panels, plywood boards and panels, wooden doors, Furniture, toothpicks, Glass and Glass ware, Kitchen Utensils, Tableware, Tiles, Textiles, Woven Fabrics, Clothes, Plastic and Rubber products, Soap and cosmetics, Tomato Paste, Euro-bond/foreign currency bond/share purchases.

The action led to the closure of several manufacturing firms as some of these items were raw materials used for production. It further exerted undue pressure on the parallel market as importers of these items had no other option to source foreign exchange.