The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently issue a directive stopping some imported goods and services from the list of items valid for forex in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Markets. This policy implies is that, those who import these items can no longer buy foreign currency from the official window to pay the overseas suppliers. Rather, they will have to source forex from the parallel market or Bureau De Change to pay for their imports.
The items include the following:
Rice
Cement
Margarine
Palm kernel/Palm oil products/vegetables oils
Meat and processed meat products
Vegetables and processed vegetable products
Poultry chicken, eggs, turkey
Private airplanes/jets
Indian incense
Tinned fish in sauce(Geisha)/sardines
Cold rolled steel sheets
Galvanized steel sheets
Roofing sheets
Wheelbarrows
Head pans
Metal boxes and containers
Enamelware
Steel drums
Steel pipes
Wire rods(deformed and not deformed)
Iron rods and reinforcing bard
Wire mesh
Steel nails
Security and razor wine
Wood particle boards and panels
Wood Fibre Boards and Panels
Plywood boards and panels
Wooden doors
Toothpicks
Glass and Glassware
Kitchen utensils
Tableware
Tiles-vitrified and ceramic
Textiles
Woven fabrics
Clothes
Plastic and rubber products, polypropylene granules , cellophane wrappers
Soap and cosmetics
Tomatoes/tomato pastes
Eurobond/foreign currency bond/ share purchases
It is important to emphasize that the importation of these items are not prohibited or banned. It only means that importers of these items are no longer qualified to get foreign exchange from the CBN or the official market to buy these items from overseas.
