The Central Bank of Nigeria, has confirmed that the bank will restrict forex for the importation of milk. Governor of the apex bank, Godwin Emefiele on Tuesday noted that one-point-two billion dollars to one-point-five billion dollars is spent every year to import milk.
He stated that milk is one of those products that can be produced in Nigeria, lamenting that milk importation has been going on in Nigeria for over 60 years.
Emefiele said the bank held meetings with leading milk producers in the country to encourage them to begin the process of producing milk in 2016, but that there has been no significant progress on the part of the companies.
He however affirmed that the government is determined to make milk production in Nigeria a viable economic proposition adding that the bank is ready to give milk producers loan to acquire land, do artificial insemination, grow grass or even provide water.
Meanwhile, the monetary policy committee of the apex bank has mandated its stance of holding the monetary policy rate at thirteen-point-five percent. At the end of the committee’s two-day meeting yesterday, the asymmetric corridor was retained at plus two hundred, minus five hundred basis points around the MPR, cash reserve ratio was retained at twenty-two-point-five-percent and liquidity ratio at thirty percent.
The committee projected that the economy would grow at two-point-two-seven percent by the end of 2019 while inflation is projected to remain at eleven-point-three-seven percent.
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