President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is yet to be
convinced that Nigerians will benefit from an official devaluation of the
Naira.
He spoke on Wednesday at an interactive meeting with
Nigerians living in Nairobi, Kenya.
President Buhari, in a statement by his Senior Special
Assistant on Media and Publicity,
Garba Shehu, maintained that while
export-driven economies could benefit from devaluation of their currencies,
devaluation will only result in further inflation and hardship for the poor and
middle class in Nigeria’s import-dependent economy.
He said he had no intention of bringing further hardship
on the country’s poor who, he said, have suffered enough.
Likening devaluation of the Naira to having it “killed”,
President Buhari said the proponents of devaluation will have to work harder to
convince him that ordinary Nigerians will gain anything from it.
The President also rejected suggestions that the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should resume the sale of foreign exchange to Bureaux de
Change (BDCs), saying that the bureau de change business has become a scam and
a drain on the economy.
“We had just 74 of the bureaux in 2005, now they have grown to about 2,800,” President Buhari
noted.
He alleged that some bank and government officials used
surrogates to run the BDCs and prosper
at public expense by obtaining foreign exchange from the government at official
rates and selling it at much higher rates.
The President said: “We will use our foreign exchange for
industry, spare parts and the development of needed infrastructure.
“We don’t have the dollars to give to the BDCs. Let them
go and get it from wherever they can, other than the Central Bank,” President
Buhari told the gathering.
The President reaffirmed his conviction that about a
third of petroleum subsidy payments under the previous administration was
bogus.
“They just stamped papers and collected our foreign
exchange,” he said.
The President urged Nigerians studying abroad to bear
with his administration as it strives to address the challenges they are facing
as a result of new foreign exchange measures.
He is optimistic that the economy will stabilise soon
with the efficient implementation of measures and policies that have been
introduced by his administration.
The President said
that for peace to reign in the world, the global community must develop and
implement comprehensive and coordinated counter-extremism strategies at
sub-regional, regional and continental levels.
Credit:thenationonlineng.net
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