The National Economic Council on Thursday called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to embark on an urgent review of its foreign exchange policy.
The council also resolved to inject fresh $250m into the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
The decisions were taken at the council’s first meeting of the year presided over by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja
Rivers State Deputy Governor, Ipalibo Banigo; Nassarawa State Deputy Governor, Silas Agara; Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; and Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
NEC, which has all state governors as members, is chaired by Osinbajo.
Agara said after an exhaustive discussion on the foreign exchange policy, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, called on council members to be patient as the situation was being managed.
He said, “After a brief presentation on forex policy options by the CBN governor, council members generally expressed concern over the current situation of the exchange rate and called for an urgent review of the current forex policy, especially the gap between the interbank and the parallel market rates.
“The CBN governor sued for patience and understanding, assuring that the situation was being closely managed.”
Adeosun reported to the council that a member each from the nation’s six geo-political zones had been nominated into the board of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.
She listed the nominees as Mrs. Halima Buba as non-executive director for the North-East; Mr. Bello Maccido, North-West; Ms. Lois Machunga-Disu, North-Central; Mr. Babajide Zetilin, South-West; Mr. Urum Eze, South-East; and Mr. Abue Ighodalo, South-South.
The minister said council members unanimously adopted the nominations for onward consideration by President Muhammadu Buhari and his final approval.
She added that the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NSIA, Mr. Uche Orii, presented a report to council on the organisation’s annual reports and accounts for the year ended 2015 and update on the 2016 activities.
Adeosun added that the council members were informed that Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund had the highest ranking in Africa in terms of performance and capitalisation.
“Council, while adopting the report of the NSIA, decided to inject a fresh $250m into the SWF sourced from the Excess Crude Account,” she said.
According to the minister, the highlights of the report include the financial performance from 2014 to the third quarter of 2016; update and investment strategy on the NSIA Future Generation Fund; NSIA Infrastructure Strategy and Agriculture Fund; and the NSIA-Old Mutual Real Estate Co-Investment Vehicle.
She gave the NSIA outlook to include plan to increase domestic infrastructure investment in 2017 as there were compelling opportunities in the environment and the organisation’s focus on social infrastructure, including investments in affordable housing and health care through the development of specialist hospitals.
Adeosun reported to the council that the balance in the ECA stood at $2.45bn as of February 15, 2017.
She also told the council that eight accounting firms had been appointed to start the verification process of the monthly Budget Support Loan Facility based on the approved Fiscal Sustainability Plan by the states.
She added that the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, assured the council members that the Federal Government had a recovery plan that would take Nigeria out of the woods.
Adeosun stated, “Consultations on the plan are ongoing to firm up the plan with clear roles for all the stakeholders and the states.
“He (Udoma) told the council that the plan would address agriculture and food security; energy sufficiency-power and petroleum products’ availability; improving transportation infrastructure; industrialisation -SMEs and manufacturing; as well as a stabilisation of the macro-economic environment.”
Ogbeh said the council was informed of the massive wheat production in Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi and Zamfara states, among others.
