That since the federal government placed ban on the importation of 41 items into the country things have not been well is no more news, rather the critical issue now is growing calls by experts on the government to rethink the ban to save jobs and the economy.
According to Dr. Ken Igboanugo, a financial analyst, “the review had become important, especially those items critical to the economic development of the country”.
It would be recalled that the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) had in July, 2015, restricted about 41 items, including rice, vegetable oil, poultry products, cosmetics and plastic and rubber products, among others, from access to foreign exchange from its official window.
In the argument of the apex bank, the country has the capacity to produce those items locally.
Like many other pundits had been prevailing on the government, Igboanugo argued that “revisiting the list of 41 items with a view to exempting a few, especially pharmaceutical items, considered critical to the health sector”.
While hailing the CBN for handling some of the critical monetary crisis especially since the naira was floated in the second quarter of 2016, he said the CBN should improve on market transparency due to allegations of multiple exchange rates in use.
He noted that “It makes sense to adopt a concessional window for critical manufacturing inputs and fuel imports if the pump price of fuel must remain at present level, it is unacceptable to use preferential rates for top government officials”.
