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| Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo |
The Vice President, Prof.
Yomi Osinbajo, on Saturday reaffirmed the position of the Federal Government
that the country’s currency will not be devalued in spite of pressures to act
otherwise.
News
Agency of Nigeria report continues:
But
a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Joseph Sanusi, replied
that delaying the devaluation was akin to postponing the evil day.
The
positions were taken at a town hall meeting which Osinbajo held with his
neighbours in Victoria Garden City on the Lekki-Epe axis of Lagos.
Osinbajo,
who insisted that devaluation was not on the table, said the CBN would operate
in line with the speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari after he was
elected to come up with flexible exchange rate to be supported by strong monetary
policies.
He
said the foreign exchange policy of government was to stop unnecessary
consumption of imported goods and promote local manufacturing.
Osinbajo
also said government met a falling revenue profile in May 2015, which was down
by about 70 per cent, compared to the same period of the preceding year.
He
also said in spite of the high cost of about US$22 to produce a barrel of crude
oil now selling at about US$33, no fewer than 38 per cent of the foreign
reserve was spent on importing petroleum products.
The
vice president further said the previous administration was spending about ₦20bn
on food importation annually, which reduced the nation’s foreign reserve
drastically from about US$40bn to about US$25bn.
As
a result, he said, the present administration was bent on diversification of
the economy from crude oil to agriculture and solid minerals.
Osinbajo
said the focus on agriculture was to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice,
poultry and palm oil production as well as develop the entire agriculture value
chain to create wealth and jobs for the teeming youth.
However,
Sanusi, a VGC resident, advised the government to either devalue the currency
or stop the confusion between the official and parallel market exchange rates.
He
said allowing an official rate at ₦197 per dollar, while the parallel market
sold for over ₦300, was distractive.
“Naira is already devalued
and government not accepting it is postponing the evil day,” Sanusi said.
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