Daily Watch – Buhari backs Emefiele, More manufacturers call for protection
17th September 2015
President Buhari says he is opposed to a further weakening of the naira, and has endorsed the Central Bank’s policy of restricting foreign-exchange trading. “I don’t think it is healthy for us to get the naira devalued,” President Buhari said in Paris. The Central Bank is providing ample foreign exchange to “essential services, industries,” he said. The presidential backing of the CBN governor’s policy Emefiele, is bound to dampen the clamour by analysts and portfolio managers for a further weakening of Nigeria’s currency.
Local printed products producers are the latest to call for protectionist policies to shield them from international competition, asking the Federal Government to place an embargo on the importation of printed materials. Printing materials producers say that Nigerian printers can satisfy the printing demands in Nigeria and even Africa, but lots of print jobs exit the shores of the country, leaving them with little to do.
ExxonMobil Corporation, has said that its subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (EEPNL), has started oil production five months ahead of schedule at the Erha North Phase two project offshore Nigeria. The oil giant noted that the project came on stream $400 million below the budget estimate, with Nigerian contractors accounting for more than $2 billion of project investment for goods and services, including subsea equipment, facilities and offshore installation. The project, which will add 65,000 barrels of crude oil to Nigeria’s daily crude oil output, is a deepwater subsea development located 60 miles offshore Nigeria in 3,300 feet of water and four miles north of the Erha field, which has been producing since 2006.