Tiku Allu, the assistant director at the Imports and Trade Relations Office, Trade and Exchange Department of the  Central Bank of Nigeria, says expanding fair access to foreign exchange and trade finance will unlock Nigeria’s export potential and strengthen regional commerce.

Mr Allu said this at the 2026 Ecobank Nigeria Customer Forum on Tuesday in Lagos.

He said that recent policy measures were designed to ensure transparency and broaden access to foreign exchange across all categories of market participants.

“Our focus is to create a level playing field so access is not concentrated among a few large corporates. When access is broadened, the real sector feels the impact and trade expands,” he said.

Mr Allu noted that equitable allocation mechanisms improve market confidence and enable small and medium-scale enterprises to participate more actively in cross-border trade.

Yemi Kale, the managing director (research and trade intelligence) at African Export-Import Bank, stressed that improving access to affordable finance remained essential to boosting production and exports.

Mr Kale further said, “Access to finance is one of the most important costs of production. Improving the availability and affordability of financing will increase output, lower production costs and support export growth.”

He added that credit expansion must be inclusive to deliver meaningful impact.

“It is not just the volume of loans that matters; what matters is how widely they reach businesses, especially smaller firms,” Mr Kale said.

The former chief of the National Bureau of Statistics noted that exporters also require financing to move goods into international markets.

(NAN)