I CAN’T meet my demands anymore and even those not on our bills are begging us to supply them, even from as far as China. So, we are saving Nigeria a lot of foreign exchange. So, the restriction on forex is good for the local industry because we are now being pushed to do more.”These were the words of Mrs. Oluyemisi Iranloye, Managing Director of Psaltry International Limited , an indigenous agro-allied company. Located in Oyo State, the company specialises in production of food grade starch.
Inspired by this outcome, and the need to replicate the success story of PIL in other strategic sectors of the economy, the CBN recently announced the extension of forex restriction to textile products. Last week it announced that the policy would soon be extended to importation of milk.Nigerians consume 1.3 trillion metric tonnes of milk annually out of which 700,000 metric tones or 53 percent are produced locally.
Continuing Emefiele said: “By the time we restrict you, if you need loan to acquire land we’ll give you. If you need a loan to grow your grass, we will give you. To produce water, we will give you loan. But that you will continue to import milk in to the country, I think we are getting to the end of road. I will repeat, we are really getting to end of the road. The era of restriction of forex for importation of milk is coming, and it will come soon and sooner than expected.
Also expressing a similar view, Director-General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said the addition of milk to restricted items would have a negative impact on the economy that might lead to downsizing, reduce government revenues and the manufacturing sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product . Ajayi-Kadir warned that the policy would have negative effects from its desired purpose and would trigger more smuggling activities into the country.”Emefiele, however, rebuffed this criticism, citing the uncooperative attitude of milk companies, stressing that the approach of the apex bank would have curtailed the incidences of farmers/herders clash.
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Source: GuardianNigeria - 🏆 1. / 94 Read more »