As Nigeria – Africa's largest economy – battles a recession brought on by a combination of slumped crude oil prices and delayed policy adjustment, all eyes have been fixed on the country's central bank.

Many observers are troubled by what they see. Part of the problem, it should be noted, is that there is too much of a focus on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the first place. This is largely because the central bank is the dominant supplier of foreign exchange (forex) in an import