Forex Constraints Cost Private Investors N1.46 Trillion – LCCI

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry said private operators have lost about N1.46tn as a result of the foreign exchange constraints being experienced in the country over the last six months.

This is coming just as the Federal Inland Revenue Service hinted that citizens will pay higher taxes from next year as a means of shoring up the nation’s revenue.

The LCCI, in its 2015 economic review, said its third quarter 2015 business environment survey showed that a forex restriction by the Central Bank of Nigeria was one of the costliest policies in Nigeria in recent years.


The Director-General, LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf, in a statement on Sunday, said, “The private operators across several sectors (fast-moving consumer goods, steel, furniture, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing) lost about N1.46tn in stalled business activities resulting from paucity of forex over the last six months.”

Citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics, he noted that the country’s real Gross Domestic Product fell to 2.84 per cent in the third quarter of 2015, compared to 6.23 per cent in the same period in 2014.

Sectors such as manufacturing and the services slipped into recession after recording successive declines over the last three quarters in 2015, the LCCI said.

The group noted that the CBN had, in response to dwindling receipts from oil export, adopted several measures such as the closure of Retail Dutch Auction System window, restriction of cash payment into domiciliary accounts and prohibition of 41 items from accessing the interbank foreign exchange market.

It expressed concern about the state of the economy and the effects of the CBN’s policies on the operations of manufacturing firms and other private businesses.


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