$1bn came into the market in past few days – CBN boss Cardoso tells senators new policies are working

CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso appearing before the Joint Senate Committee on Finance, Banking, Insurance and Financial Institutions on Friday, February 9 said the measures taken so far by the apex bank to stabilize foreign exchange rates have started yielding positive results.

According to Cardoso, the measures would help to stabilise the foreign exchange rates and minimize the distortion that high exchange has on inflation, as they are closely related.

Cardoso said that $1bn has come into the Nigerian market in the past few days through the CBN interventions.

“We have already begun to see shifts in the positive direction. Indeed they (CBN measures) have already started yielding early results with significant interest from foreign portfolio investors which was a concern. That has already begun to supply the much-needed foreign exchange to the economy.

“For example, upward of the past few days, we have had over $1 billion that has come into the market, and this quite frankly has answered the question of if our policies are working,” Cardoso said.

He added that measures aimed at improving US dollar supply into the Nigerian economy have significant potential in taming the volatility of the exchange rate and in turn moderating inflation.

The CBN Governor also assured that inflation is expected to decline this year using the inflation targeting framework and moderating to 21.1 percent.