•Foreign reserves hit $31.5bn following blockage of leakages
•P/Harcourt, Warri refineries resume operations, Kaduna begins August
•Locally refined petroleum products may hit 20m litres August
•CBN remains firm on monetary policies

By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft war has started yielding dividends. Following blockage of leakages, Nigeria’s foreign reserves have increased from $28.57 billion at the end of May to $31.53 billion as of July 22, 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, disclosed, yesterday.

Also, the country will very soon reduce importation of refined petroleum products significantly because Port Harcourt and Warri refineries have started refining products and the Kadua refinery will resume operations in August.

Emefiele made the disclosures while briefing the press at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, meeting, in Abuja.

$ 31. 5 b Foreign Reserves

The CBN governor said gross official reserves increased from $28.57 billion at the end of May to $31.53 billion as at July 22, 2015, reflecting the blockage of leakages as well as the bank’s management policies.

He declined to give details of how the leakages were blocked but said that some of the earnings from which some agencies used to make deductions for their operations before remitting the balance to the coffers were paid in full.

His words: “It is true that Mr President, based on his insistence that leakages must be blocked, there have been serious attempts to block leakages both in Naira and in dollars. Some funds have been trapped in banks and that is the reason there is a vigorous effort to ensure that we all embrace the Single Treasury Account where all revenues collected must come to the centre and after all the revenues have come to the centre, then based on the budget that has been approved for any agency of government, whatever is due to them to meet their operational expenses would be given.

“But first point is that all revenues must come to the centre. In the course of these, yes, I can confirm that there were leakages that have been blocked and as a result we have seen some funds trapped in some areas now coming into the centre and that is part of the reason you see the reserves build up.”

Refineries

Mr. Emefiele disclosed that the CBN and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, have been holding talks towards significantly reducing fuel importation which takes a lot of foreign exchange.

“Let me confirm that the CBN and the NNPC have held a couple of meetings and I am aware that Port-Harcourt and Warri have started refining petroleum products. We are expecting that in the month of August, Kaduna Refinery will begin refining petroleum products.

“Hopefully, as they ramp up production, they would be able to get to about 19 to 20 million litres that they can produce to meet our daily consumption level of about 30 million litres. Our interest as CBN is that by this act alone we are going to record a drastic reduction in the importation of petroleum products which will ultimately help our reserve position and help us in our mandate of strengthening the exchange rate”, he said

Tight monetary policy, retains 13% MPR

He said the CBN has retained the Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, at 13 Per cent and equally left the symmetric corridor of 200 basis points around it.

Emefiele added that the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR, was retained at 31 per cent.

He said monetary policy would remain tight because of the high liquidity in the system, noting that the drivers of the current upward inflationary spiral were of a transient nature and mostly outside the direct control of monetary policy.

“Consequently, the opportunity for further policy manoeuvre remains largely constrained in the absence of supporting fiscal measures. It therefore, urged for coordination of monetary, fiscal and structural policies to stimulate output growth, and stabilize the exchange rate,” he said.

Rising inflation

On inflation, Mr. Emefiele expressed concern about “the gradual but steady increase in headline inflation up to June 2015, and noted that this reflected a rise in both the core and food components of inflation.”

Core inflation rose to 8.4 per cent in June from 8.3 per cent in May, and food inflation increased to 10.0 per cent from 9.8 per cent, over the same period.

The governor said “the up-tick in year-to-date inflation rates were traceable to transient factors such as energy, arising from scarcity of petroleum products around the country, poor electricity supply and increased demand for transportation and food, from the build-up to the general elections and the ensuing Easter and Sallah celebrations.”

Naira is well priced, no more devaluation

Addressing the issue of the value of the Naira at the foreign exchange market, the CBN boss also said that at $1- N 197, the nation’s currency was well-priced, foreclosing any new plan to devalue it.

He said that more than 95 per cent of transactions that take place in the financial system that involve procuring foreign exchange were done at the inter-bank segment of the market and that as such the Bureau de Change segment could not be relied upon for the value of the Naira.

At the BDC, Naira exchanged at about N244 -$1 at the middle of the week.

The governor said Nigeria was the only country in the world where a Central Bank was supporting BDCs.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/buharis-corruption-watch-begins-to-yield-results/#sthash.tJCp1RIg.dpuf

cc: lalasticlala

Wailers association and taniods ntooo ur wailing continues now.

The foreign reserve point is a bit misleading. I don't think the credit should be given to buhari who doesn't have any influence on cbn. Efforts to plug leakages and the forex demand management are solely down to cbn.

Nigeria on the move again.
With one month of financial leakages blocked our reserves have jumped up.
Haters will still be condemning these efforts to make Nigeria better.
Sai Baba

....and they say my able Presido is not working? God punish devil!

Wailing wailers please come and wail as usual.

The way dey re writing it like dey just heard dat buhari is back to power and woke up from sleep and started to work.

Refineries ve been under renovation since last year which a of mine ve been out of town for about a year working on that.

Anyways, I wish Nigeria comes back to life no matter who dose it.

This is like music to our hear.the only people that won't be hapy about this news are the TANOID.

Dollyak:
The foreign reserve point is a bit misleading. I don't think the credit should be given to buhari who doesn't have any influence on cbn. Efforts to plug leakages and the forex demand management are solely down to cbn.

...what matter the most is the leakage stops. I smell PDP in you....

Dollyak:
The foreign reserve point is a bit misleading. I don't think the credit should be given to buhari who doesn't have any influence on cbn. Efforts to plug leakages and the forex demand management are solely down to cbn.

and why was cbn not doing this before Buhari came in?

Jonathan's ass lickers will term this propanganda and lies.

Useless people.

Good news.....

This is what I call change. These are the fundamentals of our economy being structurally and strategically realigned with realities, but sensational wailers will not see this, they are more concerned with appointments in acting capacities (which are purely temporary) and strictly procedural.

Omotolu:
...what matter the most is the leakage stops. I smell PDP in you....

No, I don't support any party Sir. I just like to call a spade a spade.

kokoA:
and why was cbn not doing this before Buhari came in?

I think we need to look at the timing and the circumstance before giving the credit to buhari. How much is buhari riding the wave of time and how much is this down to his influence? I think the truth is probably in the middle.

Dollyak:

No, I don't support any party Sir. I just like to call a spade a spade.

...we need not apportion blames and successes,ma'am. Let's have a one united and developed Nigeria...

Wailing wailers How market na?

Omotolu:
...we need not apportion blames and successes,ma'am. Let's have a one united and developed Nigeria...

Indeed. I agree.

I am looking for mu mugu here to come and dispute all of this

One cannot separate the relative position of the body as a whole from the head that is always thinking and giving instructions on where, when, and how to move.

No oooo, it's not Buhari, it's as a result of Jonathan's Transformation:-Wailing wailers Association of Nigeria.

Dollyak:
The foreign reserve point is a bit misleading. I don't think the credit should be given to buhari who doesn't have any influence on cbn. Efforts to plug leakages and the forex demand management are solely down to cbn.

I miss sanusi lamido sanusi

vedaxcool:
Wailers association and taniods ntooo ur wailing continues now.

This is what u have commented in all the threads you visit

Are there no other constructive contribution u can make......?

And many will be taaking your type serious
This forum is supposed to be 18+

Omotolu:
...what matter the most is the leakage stops.

That's the main thing. If naija good na for all of us!!!

Dollyak:
The foreign reserve point is a bit misleading. I don't think the credit should be given to buhari who doesn't have any influence on cbn. Efforts to plug leakages and the forex demand management are solely down to cbn.

If the CBN outrightly refuses to supply foreign exchange to many importers, reserves will go up but the downside is that the Naira's value will plummet. That is essentially what we have seen as US dollars become scarce.

The persistent decline of the naira in the parallel market followed the introduction of new measures by the central bank last month, restricting access to hard currency at the interbank in a bid to conserve dwindling foreign exchange reserves

http://www.punchng.com/business/money/cbn-adjusts-rate-as-naira-falls-to-244/

The accumulation of foreign reserves at the expense of the Naira's value is not new. Here is a quote from Wikipedia in respect of the Sani Abacha era

Despite the international shun his government endured, he oversaw an increase in the country's foreign exchange reserves from $494 million dollars in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sani_Abacha. Was this because the Abacha regime was not corrupt? No. What happened to the Naira whilst all these reserves were accumulated? Naira went from 22 Naira to a $1 in 1993 to 84 Naira to $1 in 1998. https://www.nairaland.com/498412/nigeria-exchange-rates-dollar-history.

The true test of whether Buhari's anti-corruption measures are working will be a repatriation of stolen wealth to nation's coffers. We won't have to read between the lines as any refunded loot should be made public.

Dmouthed:

[s]
This is what u have commented in all the threads you visit

Are there no other constructive contribution u can make......?

And many will be taaking your type serious
This forum is supposed to be 18+



That's the main thing. If naija good na for all of us!![/s]!

Its a free world bro go and sin no more

Dannyset:
No oooo, it's not Buhari, it's as a result of Jonathan's Transformation:-Wailing wailers Association of Nigeria.

please who are the wailing wailers?

4Play:


If the CBN outrightly refuses to supply foreign exchange to many importers, reserves will go up but the downside is that the Naira's value will plummet. That is essentially what we have seen as US dollars become scarce. http://www.punchng.com/business/money/cbn-adjusts-rate-as-naira-falls-to-244/

The accumulation of foreign reserves at the expense of the Naira's value is not new. Here is a quote from Wikipedia in respect of the Sani Abacha erahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sani_Abacha. Was this because the Abacha regime was not corrupt? No. What happened to the Naira whilst all these reserves were accumulated? Naira went from 22 Naira to a $1 in 1993 to 84 Naira to $1 in 1998. https://www.nairaland.com/498412/nigeria-exchange-rates-dollar-history.

The true test of whether Buhari's anti-corruption measures are working will be a repatriation of stolen wealth to nation's coffers. We won't have to read between the lines as any refunded loot should be made public.

Thanks for this insight.

HaaaaaaaaaaaaaAaa. Heart attack n hypertension to those wailing wailers.Pls somebody call 112.

tbaba1234:


The governor said “the up-tick in year-to-date inflation rates were traceable to transient factors such as energy, arising from scarcity of petroleum products around the country, poor electricity supply and increased demand for transportation and food, from the build-up to the general elections and the ensuing Easter and Sallah celebrations.”

This got my attention the most. The GMB critics have been blaming Buhari and his government for the devaluation of the Naira recently, yet this was caused by Jonathan leaving this country in a dire state.

Is it Buhari's fault that Jonathan refused to sort out the fuel scarcity problem. Even worse was Buhari in charge of Nigeria during the election period or was it GEJ.