The Governor of the Central bank ofNigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has said the Federal Governmentwas talking with China so it would also be importing some of its own requirements from Nigeria.
According to Emefiele, this would help to reducethe gulf in trading between the two countries.
Speaking ata press conferenceat the World Bank headquarters in Washington, on the last day of the 2016 World Bank/IMF spring meeting, Emefiele also said part of Nigeria’s deal with China was that the country becamethe Asian country’s trading hub in WestAfrica.
He said: “China has appointed South Africa as itstrading hub for Remnibi transactions in the South African region, has appointed Kenya as its trading hub for East and Central Africa.
“And Nigeria, the mandate that we signed is for us tobe appointed as the trading hub in WestAfrican. In all, we expectthat it is going to bemutually beneficial.
“We are talking to China so that it would also be importing some of itsitems from Nigeria, sothat the trading balance can be sort ofreduced.
“Will Nigeria benefitfromthis? I want to say categorically that Nigeria benefitsfrom this. It’s less pressureon the dollar and consequentlyon our reserves.”
Emefiele added that the CBN could not continue with indeterminate adjustment (devaluation) of thecurrency, without taking necessarystructuralreforms.
“For the first time, we are taking structural reforms seriously in the country. We’ve always talked about, when you do an adjustment, follow it up with structural reforms.
“But we are saying this time we’ve done an adjustmentand we are following it up with structural reform, where we are saying we must diversify the economyaway from depending on oil.
“I’ve said it that we have seen peoplewho are coming in an investing. During the china trip, we saw peoplewho said they can now come in instead of exporting those items into Nigeria, theycan now bring those plants into Nigeria and begin to produce those things in Nigeria because our climate is good."
Source: vanguard.com
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