….. World Bank Releases $160m to Help Unemployed Nigerians Get Jobs
The naira on Tuesday, February 9, weakened further to 313.5 against the United States dollar at the parallel market as shortage of the greenback, persists in the forex markets.
The local currency which traded for 310 to a dollar on Monday lost 3.5 units to close at N313.5 per dollar on Tuesday.
According to Reuters On Tuesday, the naira closed at 199.40 to the dollar on the interbank market, around the peg rate of 197 to the dollar.
This is coming just as the interbank lending rate rose to two per cent from one per cent on Monday, after CBN directed commercial banks to fund their naira accounts ahead of its intervention in the forex market on Thursday.
The naira had plummeted against the dollar last month after the CBN banned dollar sales to Bureau De Change outlets and later stopped daily sales to the interbank market.
Last Month, the Central Bank of Nigeria said it has stopped the payment of Foreign Exchange to Bureau De Change operators.
Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele said the apex bank is halting dollar sales to non-bank foreign exchange operators and letting commercial banks accept dollar deposits with immediate effect.
This is part of efforts to shore up dwindling foreign reserves.
Africa’s biggest economy, an OPEC member state that depends on oil sales for about 95 percent of its foreign reserves, has been hammered by a collapse in global oil prices, which has triggered a slide in its naira currency.
Godwin Emefiele said the sale of foreign exchange to bureaux de change would be discontinued because they were using up the country’s foreign reserves for illegal transactions and selling the dollar at 250 naira compared to the official central bank rate of 197 naira.
Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in years.
To avoid devaluing the currency, a stance so far supported by President Muhammadu Buhari, the central bank adopted increasingly stringent foreign exchange rules last year and effectively banned dollar access for the purchase of 41 items, which has also been criticised at the World Trade Organisation by the United States and the European Union.
Meanwhile, the World Bank inaugurated a $160m (N31.5bn) growth and employment initiative in Nigeria on Tuesday. The initiative aimed at stimulating economic activities in some sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Some of the identified sectors are entertainment, Information and Communication Technology, construction, manufacturing, agro-processing, hospitality and tourism.
The initiative, to be driven by an online platform, will also offer Nigerian companies in the targeted sectors access to finance and technical assistance.
The World Bank Country Director, Mr. Rachid Benmessaoud, said the project would support the efforts of the Federal Government in industrialising the country.
“The government of Nigeria has identified security, job creation and governance as three key priorities. For job creation, its focus is on the need to create three million new jobs each year, and it aims to do this through industrialisation, public works and agricultural expansion, diversifying the economy away from reliance on oil revenues.
“The Growth and Employment Project is a major initiative aimed at stimulating job creation through the growth of specific, high potential non-oil sectors. It will make resources available to help address some of the key constraints identified by business, with emphasis on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which are widely regarded as a vital engine for growth and job creation.”
Explaining the modalities for accessing the funds, the World Bank country director explained that entrepreneurs would apply and be screened, noting that those that met the required criteria would be have access to high quality training and capacity building before they could be eligible for the grants.