The foreign exchange market in Nigeria has been “totally sorted,” with businesses no longer plagued by the difficulties that once characterised access to dollars, Chairman of the United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu, has said.
Elumelu, who spoke to State House correspondents after meeting President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday, said the Central Bank of Nigeria under Governor Olayemi Cardoso had brought predictability and stability to the economy.
Illustrating the transformation, the billionaire banker said, “There was a time before if I got 10 calls on banking issues, seven of those calls was about how to access foreign exchange.
“Today, if you get 10 calls on banking issues, not even one is on FX. That market is totally sorted.”
Elumelu, who is also the Chairman of Transcorp and a member of the Presidential Economic Council, argued that the Tinubu administration had created an enabling environment for the CBN to implement reforms.
He said, “If you see what the Central Bank Governor and his team are doing, it’s quite encouraging; we’ve had some predictability and stability.
“What’s important is to be able to predict, in an economy, the direction of things, so you can plan very well.
“Mr President also should be commended for creating that space for the governor to do what he and his team are doing.”
The CBN, since Cardoso assumed office in September 2023, has implemented sweeping reforms to stabilise the foreign exchange market.
These include unifying multiple exchange rate windows in October 2023, adopting a willing-buyer-willing-seller model, clearing a verified backlog of $7bn in foreign exchange obligations, and introducing the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System in October 2024 to enhance transparency.
Nigeria’s external reserves have also rebounded, rising to over $43 billion in 2025 from about $33.6 billion in October 2023, according to data from the apex bank.
Elumelu, however, called on the Federal Government to fast-track payment of debts owed to power-generating companies, noting that improved access to electricity remained critical for economic development.
“Improvement in access to electricity is critical for economic development.
“Mr President realises this, embraces it, and is committed to doing more, especially helping to fast-track the payment of the power sector debt so that the power generators can do more for the country,” he said.
The businessman added, “All of us who are in the power sector are owed significantly, but in spite of that, we continue to generate electricity, so we want to see the payment made so that there is more provision of electricity to the country.”
Elumelu’s Transcorp Group holds significant investments in Nigeria’s power sector through Transcorp Power, which operates the Ughelli Power Plant with an installed capacity of 972MW and the Afam Power Plant with 1,000MW capacity.
The group also acquired a 60 per cent stake in the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company in 2023.
At Transcorp’s annual general meeting in April 2025, Elumelu disclosed that the Federal Government owed the company over N600bn, approximately $400m, for electricity supplied to the national grid.
During his meeting with the President, Elumelu said they also discussed support for small and medium scale enterprises.
“Mr President is very passionate about capacitising the small and medium scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
“He talked about tax reform and how he wants to use that to support small and medium scale enterprises. He spoke about Bank of Industry and I was super impressed.
“He even called the name of the CEO, that he likes what is going on, and he wants them to do more to support small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the country,” he explained.
(Punch)
