The Central Bank of Nigeria , CBN, Tuesday, through a circular released finally lifted the foreign exchange restrictions it placed on importers of 43 items eight years ago.
The 43 items are:
Rice, Cement, Margarine, Palm Kernel, Palm products, Vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products. Others are; poultry and processed vegetable products, tinned fish in sauce,cold rolled steel sheets, roofing sheets, wheel barrows, head pans, metal boxes and containers. Enamelware, steel pipes, wire rods(deformed or not deformed), iron rods, reinforcing bars, wire mesh, security and razor fencing and poles and wood particle boards and panels.
Also included in the list are:Wood fibre boards and panels, plywood boards and panels, wooden doors,toothpicks,glass and glassware, kitchen utensils,tableware, tiles-vitrified and ceramic, gas cylinders and woven fabrics. The rest are; clothes, plastic and rubber products, polypropylene wrappers and bags, soap and cosmetics, tomatoes/tomato pastes and eurobond/foreign currency bond/share purchases.
The apex bank also stated that it will boost liquidity in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market and intervene from time to time, stressing that interventions will decrease as liquidity improves
Recall that former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele had placed restrictions on the importation of these items.
