The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the weeekend revealed that diaspora remittances rose by $2.4 billion at the end of the first half (H1) of 2022.
The Director, Trade and Exchange Department at CBN, Dr Ozoemena Nnaji, who disclosed this during the 33rd Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors which held in Lagos,noted that the current weak indices could have been much worse if not for the bank’s intervention schemes adding that the schemes have so far recorded successes.
She said:“On the RT200, we have recorded some successes and in the first quarter of 2022, we paid out about N3.5 billion as rebates to exporters who repatriated their export proceeds and used the same proceeds to service the I&E window to lubricate the liquidity in the inter-bank market. In the second quarter, our rebate went up to about N20 billion and we are also seeing that that money is going into our FX market to lubricate the market and meet some of the liquidity in both manufacturers, traders that need FX to be able do their businesses.
“We have seen an increase in the Naira for dollar in terms of remittances and so far for example, in 2020, we were able to record about $2.9 billion of cash inflows and so far this year, we have recorded $2.4 billion and so in the first half of the year, we have gotten almost what we got in 2021. Again, we have components of remittances which include workers’ compensation but the monetary inflows that came into the country for this year is about $2.4 billion”, she said.
She added that the apex bank has studied countries (especially Pakistan) that have implemented remittance policies and will continue to seek support from the Ministry of Finance, Foreign Affairs, other agencies as well as deposit money banks (DMBs).
“We have even had meetings with Pakistan and we observed what they are doing is far more broad than what is being implemented here in Nigeria. We are taking baby steps because we know we do not have the resources and the weight because it involves both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finance. In Pakistan, it is the Ministry of Finance that is paying the rebate and not the CBN. Also, it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that connects Pakistani workers to the banks via the bankers so that a separate bank account is set up for a percentage of what they earn abroad.
“There are embassies of Pakistan that are involved in remittances and so you can see that there are multiple -agencies involved in these processes. We are talking to some agencies to see how this can be replicated here in Nigeria but that conversation has not gotten to a point of implementation,” Nnaji said.