The CBN governor said the revenue from tariffs on goods decreased from a high of approximately $920 million in 2011 to about $250 million in 2017.
Nigeria’s central bank governor, Olayemi Cardoso, on Friday, said the country recorded a revenue drop of $1.4 billion between 2015 and 2019 after imposing forex restrictions for import of 43 items.
The apex bank governor made this known on Friday while delivering his keynote address at the 58th Annual Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria in Lagos.
“Studies have shown that during the period when the 43 items were restricted, there was a 51.0 per cent increase in trade evasion by importers accessing the foreign exchange market, resulting in a revenue drop of approximately US$1.4 billion, or US$275 million annually, between 2015 and 2019,” he said.
In October, the CBN announced that it had restored the 43 items prohibited from access to the foreign exchange (FX) window in 2015.
The decision came about eight years after the bank on 23 June 2015 restricted those who deal in the items from accessing forex at the authorised FX window.
The aim of the policy at the time was to reduce pressure on the demand for dollars for importation and to encourage local production of these items.
Some of the affected items included rice, cement, margarine, palm kernel, palm oil products, vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vegetable products, poultry, tomatoes/tomato paste, soap and cosmetics, and clothes.
Other items included private aeroplanes/jets, Indian incense, tinned fish in sauce, cold rolled steel sheets, galvanised steel sheets, roofing sheets, wheelbarrows, head pans, metal boxes/containers, enamelware, steel drums and pipes, wire mesh, steel nails, wood particle boards, and panels.
Also affected were security and razor wire, wood particle and fibre boards and panels, wooden doors, furniture, toothpicks, glass/glassware, kitchen utensils, tableware, tiles (vitrified, ceramics), textiles, wooden fabrics, plastic/rubber products, polypropylene granules, and cellophane wrappers.
Subsequently, amidst efforts to achieve its backward integration policy on key items, the central bank added fertiliser and maize/corn to the list of items.
The policy drove importers to source forex in the parallel market for transactions, resulting in additional pressure and demand for FX at the unauthorised window.
Within the period, prices of the food commodities among the restricted items, which are major staple foods among Nigerians, skyrocketed by over 100 per cent.
The upward trend in the prices of the commodities has had a negative impact on the purchasing power of many citizens.
