- Protest against CBN’s forex policy flops
For the fifteenth straight month, the
Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation increased to 18.55
per cent (year-on-year) in December last year compared to 18.48 per cent
in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated
yesterday.
It attributed the 0.07 per cent hike in
the headline index to price increases observed in all the divisions
which determine the index.
According to the CPI figures for the
month under review, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels,
Clothing and Footwear and Education recorded the highest increases while
Communication and Restaurants and Hotels recorded the slowest pace of
growth in December, growing at 5.33 per cent and 8.91 per cent
(year-on-year) respectively.
The Food Index rose by 17.39 per cent
(year-on-year) in December 2016, up by 0.20 per cent points from rate
recorded in November (17.19) per cent.
According to the NBS, all major food
sub-indexes increased, with Soft Drinks recording the slowest pace of
increase at 7.66 per cent (year-on-year).
Price movements recorded by all items
less farm produce or core sub-index rose by 18.10 per cent
(year-on-year) in December, down by 0.10 per cent points from rate
recorded in November (18.20) per cent.
However, Urban index rose by 20.12 per
cent (year-on-year) in December from 20.07 per cent recorded in
November, while the rural index increased by 17.20 per cent from 17.10
per cent in November.
On month-on-month basis, the urban index
rose by 1.08 per cent in December from 0.78 per cent recorded in
November, while the rural index rose by 1.04 per cent in December from
0.79 per cent in November.
It added: “On a month-on-month basis,
the core sub-index also eased by 0.62 percent in December, down by 0.09
percent points from 0.71 per cent recorded in November. The highest
month on month increases were recorded in clothing materials and other
articles of clothing, passenger transport by sea, hairdressing salons
and personal grooming establishments, passenger transport by road,
passenger transport by air, motor cycles and wine.”
Naira Depreciates to N497/$ on Parallel Market
In a related development, the Naira fell
against the United States dollar to N497/$ on the parallel market
yesterday, weaker than the N495 to the dollar it closed the previous
day. The nation currency has been on the decline since Tuesday on the
parallel market, losing N2 per day.
The development was attributed to weaker forex supply in the market, as demand continued to rise.
According to a currency trader who
pleaded to remain anonymous, there has been intense foreign exchange
demand for the payment of school fees abroad as well as from importers.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday
told Bureau de Change (BDC) operators that it does not intend to
devalue the Naira and will support it at current levels, especially with
a recent rise in oil prices.
The President of the Association of
Bureau De Change of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadabe said the CBN
Governor, Godwin Emefiele told the group in a meeting that it was
looking at ways to boost dollar liquidity on the official market to
eliminate the spread to the parallel market.
The government has been pressing retail
operators to narrow what it says is a damaging gulf between the Naira’s
official rate – currently N305 to the dollar – and the parallel rate. On Tuesday, the operators set their first ever reference exchange rate for the naira at 399 per dollar ahead of the apex bank meeting.
Protest against CBN’s Forex Policy Flops
Also yesterday, the attempt by a group
to stage a protest against the foreign exchange policies of the CBN
failed as the group led by Deji Adeyanju, could not muster enough public
support.
The group which had earlier been
described by the CBN as “paid hirelings and blackmailers” had been
mobilising Nigerians to join the protest.
At about 9:30 am
when some people gathered at a junction close to the Women Development
Centre in Central Area, Abuja, the leader of the group, told reporters
that they were not coming to make trouble, but rather to obtain
explanations as to why the Naira should be allowed to weaken against the
dollar.
Received by the policemen on routine
duty at the junction, the group which had earlier been described by
CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate communications, Isaac Okorafor, as
“paid agents of selfish interests and the enemies of the Nigerian
economy”, left the junction on their own after about five minutes.
The CBN had in statement alerted the
public to an arranged protest by a paid group working for “powerful
interests who want the CBN and government to reverse the policy on
conservation of forex and sabotage the ongoing efforts to wean Nigerians
from senseless importation.
“They want to create markets for
importers to the overall detriment of the Nigerian economy. No amount of
blackmail will make the CBN allow a practice where-by our farmers and
industrialists who have invested heavily and employed our youths in the
production of Nigerian-made rice, fish, industrial starch, palm produce,
wheat, tooth pick, wines, etc, would be made to close their farms and
factories again.
“What these charlatans and hirelings
want is basically twofold. First they want the CBN to give out the
nation’s scarce foreign exchange to their sponsors to import all manner
of foreign goods and dump them on our markets thereby frustrating the
good work our own farmers and manufacturers have begun,” the CBN said in
a statement.
It added: “Second, they want the CBN to
fold its arms and allow currency speculators to drive the Naira down to a
level at which it will be easy for their paymasters to buy up and take
control of the Nigerian economy. They have even gone to the extent of
making false allegations that some banks are having trouble just to
trigger panic in the financial system.
“These will not happen. Nigerians have
rejected these foreign agents. 26 states have adopted the CBN Anchor
Borrowers Progrmme (ABP). Nigeria is set to be self-sufficient in rice,
fish and wheat production. What happened during the past Christmas and
New Year celebrations has proved this,” he added.
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