Fuel, Cars, And Other Imports Total $46 Billion Per Year In The FG

According to Tope Fasua, the President's Special Advisor on Economic Affairs, Nigeria imports goods worth about $45 billion every year, including vehicles, milk, chemicals, fish, and refined petroleum products.

The renowned economist and the CEO of Global Analytics Consulting, Fasua, spoke at a forum on economic policy held by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He encouraged the CBN to lower the country's Bureau De Change operators from over 5,000 to roughly 200 as he thought about the issue, "Unification of foreign exchange and the effect of fuel subsidy removal on the business community."

He said, "I hear things like scarcity of forex. What is forex shortage, as if the world owes us any forex? The world does not owe us any forex. The forex you get depends on the trade that you do.

"And if you look at Nigeria's import and export profile, over 20 items we import in Nigeria are in the billions of dollars range. Our biggest import, of course, till today, except maybe Dangote kicks in, is fuel, including petrol, diesel, etc., which takes about $25bn to $30bn every year.

"Then we have things like cars, which is about $4bn every year; sugar, about $1bn; fish, $1bn; milk, $1bn; wheat, $4bn; chemicals, $3bn; pharmaceuticals, $2bn; and I could continue to reel it down for you."

To address the issues, he contends that the central bank should reform the currency market and its players.

He stated: "We need to do some structural reforms. For example, we should reform the BDCs sector to strengthen it. You can't manage over 5,000 BDCs selling money on the streets; it is not normal.

"If we can do the structural reforms in the BDCs sector and the banks and supervise them well, the CBN, with our reserves, can incentivise that sector, allowing people to get the money much quicker. And you have to define the illegal market; by then, we will be able to find stability."

Naira had reportedly continued to weaken against the dollar, trading at 985 to the dollar in the black market.