- August 17, 2021
- Posted by: adminer
- Category: Business
The Deputy Governor, Corporate Services Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Edward Adamu, has attributed the depreciation in the value of the Naira to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
Adamu stated this at an interactive session with the House Committee on Finance on the 2022-2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) on Monday, in Abuja.
He explained that the exchange rate was determined by the forces of demand and supply and that there were three main avenues by which Nigeria got its foreign exchange.
“We have proceeds from the sale of crude oil, we have foreign portfolio inflows and remittances; those are the three major ways that we get forex.
“Crude oil sale has not been as high as we all will want it to be and obviously in the aftermath of COVID-19, the global economy grounded to a halt and the use of crude oil was also halted.
“To the extent that sometimes in April last year, we had crude oil selling at a negative, which means that people were being paid to store what they bought and so that the avenue for forex inflows was significantly reduced.
“You go on to foreign portfolio inflows, you notice that investors also settled their affairs on the side of caution and so, once COVID-19 outbreak occurred, they moved out about $120 billion dollars from emerging markets to safe havens in America and Nigeria is one of those countries from where monies were withdrawn.