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Friday 29 January 2016

Buhari Rejects Naira Devaluation


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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