CBN Has Not Intervened In I&E Window Since January – Emefiele

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has said Nigeria has not changed from its foreign exchange management policies.

The governor, who stated this at the 278th MPC Press Briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, said the CBN had not intervened in the Investors & Exporters’ forex window since January.

Emefiele said, “Nigeria has not changed from its foreign exchange management policies. Nigeria still remains on a managed float.

“What does a managed float regime mean? That the Central Bank, which has a core mandate for foreign exchange management in the country, will run the market, see to how the market operates depending on its readings.

“It might interest us to know that since January, the CBN has not intervened in the I&E window. The market has always operated within a band of around N409 and at some point, it attained N412, N413 and it began to move and that is the way it is supposed to go.

“The Central Bank’s job is to watch the market and how it operates to see how to moderate the rate in the market in line with our own reading of the exchange rate.”

Emefiele also said the statement credited to the minister of finance that the country had moved into a flexible exchange rate was not true.

The I&E FX window is the market trading segment for investors, exporters, and end-users that allows for FX trades to be made at exchange rates determined based on prevailing market circumstances.

It is aimed at efficient and effective price discovery in the Nigerian FX market.

The I&E FX window was established by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2017.