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UPDATE 1-Nigeria to offer naira incentives for importing dollars

Published 06/03/2021, 16:26
Updated 06/03/2021, 16:30
© Reuters.

(Adds background)
ABUJA, March 6 (Reuters) - Nigeria will offer a naira
incentive to import U.S. dollars through certain licensed
channels, the central bank said, in a push to shore up the
country's dollar supply.
Recipients of remittances from the Nigerian diaspora made
through international money transfer operators licensed by the
central bank will receive 5 naira ($0.0131) for every imported
dollar, the regulator said in a statement dated Friday and sent
on Saturday.
The scheme will run from March 8 to May 8, the bank said.
Nigeria in November changed the currency of remittance
payments to the U.S. dollar from naira, after the currency fell
to a 3-1/2 year low of 500 naira to the dollar on the black
market.
The bank said the change was to narrow the arbitrage whereby
money transfer operators profited from unofficial channels.
Rising dollar demand has been putting pressure on the naira.
Importers have scrambled for hard currency, while providers of
foreign exchange, such as offshore investors, exited after the
COVID-19 pandemic triggered an oil price crash.
Remittances or money transfers make up the second-largest
source of foreign exchange receipts after oil revenues in
Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy. Around $26.4 billion was sent
to Nigeria in 2019, according to the World Bank.

($1 = 380.5500 naira)

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