The World Trade Organization director general said on Monday that the WTO was worried about Nigeria’s foreign exchange management and how it had been utilized to help manufacturing, exports and imports.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said some WTO members had brought objections and that Nigeria expected to clarify its foreign exchange system to the WTO and those members.
She said Nigeria had invoked WTO’s agreement on balance of payment to conserve foreign exchange.
“It invoked article yet some members have brought a grievance against us that we shouldn’t have utilized this article in that manner,” Okonjo-Iweala told journalists in the wake of meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
“In this way, indeed, the WTO is worried about foreign exchange, the manner in which we oversee it and how we use it to help manufacturing, export and import in our economy.”
Nigeria’s Central Bank, trying to moderate its dollar reserve, controlled access to the interbank market for merchants acquiring a wide scope of merchandise to help local production and set up multiple exchange system oversee tension on the naira.
Okonjo-Iweala, a previous Nigerian Finance and foreign affairs minister, said she would meet the central bank governor to examine the issues.
Nigeria’s central bank has supported a solid naira, a strategy sponsored by President Muhammadu Buhari, who considers it to be a public pride. The bank has contended that a more fragile naira will stir up inflation which has been in twofold digit since 2016.
The central bank has dismissed calls for a more flexible naira, which the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has said will assist Nigeria avoid future shocks.
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