Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, has noted that Nigeria’s current foreign exchange liquidity challenges is primarily due to insufficient supply of the greenback to the ma
Fielding questions on Arise TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Monday, Obi said there should have been broad consultation before the government rolled out the policy.
“You can’t float a currency you don’t have supply with. It’s like building a non-gated house in a criminal-ridden society. You have to have a defence mechanism. Nobody floats what you don’t have a supply for. I believe that now that we have new CBN leadership, they have to look at the overall monetary policy.
“It’s again not something you announce haphazardly. It’s something you look at critically. Nobody floats his currency without having an adequate supply. When you don’t have adequate supply, there will be pressure and criminality. We should have worked on eliminating those criminalities and excesses in our FX regime,” he said.
The former Anambra State governor insisted that rather than float the naira, he would have devalued the naira.
“What we would have done is devalue the currency to about 600 or thereabout while trying to manage what you have and encouraging exports. I can tell you that not even in the developed world has anybody left their currency to market forces because you might not be able to control it. After all, you cannot reverse your policy.
“These are announcement defects that would have been well thought through by a proper economic team and consultation,” he added.
It would be recalled that in June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) unified exchange rate windows to maintain Naira stability against foreign currencies, notably the United States Dollar.
The exchange rate in the investors’ and exporters’ window hit N810.78/$1 on Thursday, the highest rate for the day, and also fell to a low of N590/$1.
However in the parallel market, bureau de change operators demanded an average rate of N1008 per dollar.
