The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday compelled banks to buy dollars at N160.5 per dollar, in a bid to halt the four day depreciation of the naira at the interbank foreign exchange market. The unusual intervention forced the interbank exchange rate to N162.05 per dollar on Friday from N163.7 per dollar on Thursday, translating to 165 kobo appreciation for the naira.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, while inspecting a cold rolling mill facility in Ilorin last week was reported to have said that the current regime of interest rates in the country was too high for the productive sector of the economy. She described the 20 percent lending rate being charged by commercial banks on loans obtained by industries as outrageous.

In view of the apparently ‘boundless’ funds at the disposal of Nigeria’s Central Bank for its independent interventions, observers, including the National Assembly have frowned at the proprietary and the shrouded protocol surrounding the values and the choice of beneficiaries of the apex bank’s bonanza.

FOLLOWING the challenges of access to funds for the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has targeted October 2014 to test-run the registry of movable collaterals.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) contributed about 46.54 per cent to country’s GDP in 2012. Specifically, Nigeria had about 17.6 million MSMEs employing about 32.4 million people in the year under review.