Nigeria’s apex bank has announced a new official Naira-to-Dollar exchange rate, forcing down the Nigerian currency by 13 Naira as efforts to reshape the nation’s fiscal policies in response to dwindling oil price continue.
This development was disclosed on Tuesday, November 25, 2014, during a meeting by Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, in Abuja, where the Central Bank reviewed Nigeria’s monetary policy rate from 12 percent to 13 percent.
The monetary policy rate highlights lending rate for the country’s economy.
Against the previous exchange rate of N155, the bank put the official exchange rate of naira at N168 to a dollar, a decision bent on strengthening the currency.
They also moved the private cash reserve ratio from 15 per cent to 20 per cent, and maintained 75 percent ratio of the public sector cash reserve.
The governor of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, noted the continued drop in global crude oil prices and reiterated the call on the government and the National Assembly to speed up the process towards the immediate passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, which has been pending passage for the past two years.
While calling on the government to take advantage of the declining oil prices to cut down on subsidies on supply of petroleum products in the 2015 budget, the committee urged states and Local Government to speed up efforts to boost their internally generated revenue and reduce reliance on revenues from the account of the country.
Meanwhile, the governor reinstated the resolve of the bank to maintain a stable financial syatem in the country adding that speculative activities that drive inflation should be avoided.
