[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he federal government has been accused of causing hardship for businesses in Nigeria by allegedly refusing to release FOREX to importers.
Chief Israel Ezue, Chief Executive Officer, White-Gate International Ventures, made the accusation, while fielding questions from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Orumba, Anambra, on Saturday.
Chief Ezue, who attributed high inflation rate and hardship in the country to non availability of Foreign Exchange (FOREX) for business transactions, claimed that accessing foreign exchange had become extremely difficult for Nigerian importers.
Ezue, who is Nigeria’s sole importer of Maxxi tyres, said that importers of key goods and services in the country were finding it difficult to meet up with the public demand.
According to him, government has refused to release dollars already paid for to enable him to import goods.
“I am dealing on tyres. Since this year, I have not received any container, not even one. This is because I was unable to get dollars for importation.
“Government has refused to release dollars to enable the importers to embark on their business.
“The goods I ordered for last year had yet to arrive. We paid custom duty and other duties due to the government.
“Government on its part has refused to release dollars, they had agreement with our business partners abroad which would enable our business to flourish,” he said.
He added that the foreign partners had refused to send more goods and they had no Forex to go on importation.
“Government owes us in spite of paying all the duties but has refused to release dollars to us which we would remit to our foreign partners.
“In spite of the vast margin between naira and dollar, we agreed to buy at that rate; yet, government through its financial agency has not been able to make it available.”
He called on the Federal Government to help importers of essential goods with Forex to meet demands in the country.
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