Forex: Manufactures Call For Review Of 41 Banned Items

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has pleaded with the Federal Government to review the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) foreign exchange policy, which placed ban on importers of 41 items from accessing the forex market.

Speaking in Lagos, MAN President Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs said some of the items that were restricted from accessing the forex market could not be sourced locally.

He said: “The association has done an analysis on the banned items and we broke the 41 items into 110 and of the 110, 75 are raw materials for our members. It is these 75 items we ask the Federal Government to remove from the list so that our members can source forex to buy their raw materials.’’

The MAN chief also said that about 44 of its members have closed shop due to unavailability of raw materials.

“We have lost about 44 of our members. They have gone out of business because of their inability to source foreign exchange to bring in the materials,” he said.

Jacobs said the way forward to resolve manufacturers’ inaccessibility to forex was for government to review the 41 items that will involve the stakeholders.

“Such raw materials that cannot be locally available should be removed from the items,’’ he said.