Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso has admonished Nigerians to reduce their appetite for dollar, consumption and usage of foreign goods as panacea stop the free fall of the naira in exchange for US dollar and other foreign currencies.
Cardoso who gave the admonition during an interactive session with the Senate Committees on Finance, Appropriations, Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions and National Planning had with managers of the nation’s economy, said without moderation of demands on USD, the CBN has no magic wand to hurriedly get naira stabilized.
However, he informed members of the committee that series of measures put in place by the apex bank recently are yielding results with inflow of about $1billion into the economy.
He said the Nigerian foreign exchange market is currently facing increased demand pressures, causing a continuous decline in the value of the naira. Factors contributing to this situation include speculative forex demand, inadequate forex supply, increased capital outflows and excess liquidity.
“To address exchange rate volatility, a comprehensive strategy has been initiated to enhance liquidity in the FX markets. This includes unifying FX market segments, clearing outstanding FX obligations, introducing new operational mechanisms for BDCs and IMTOs, enforcing the Net Open Position limit, Open Market Operations and adjusting the remunerable Standing Deposit Facility cap among others.
Aside the CBN governor, top government functionaries like the Ministers of Finance, Wale Edun, Budget and National Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari also made presentations based on questions asked by the senators on the state of economy.
Senator Sani Musa who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, in series of posers fired at the ministers and CBN governor, queried the $3.3billion collected as loan to rescue naira since expected positive effects are not being felt months after.
But the Chairman of Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Adetokunbo Abiru, in his remarks told the CBN governor to ensure proper handshake between monetary and fiscal policies.
Specifically, he urged the CBN governor to make available to the committee, audited account of the apex bank and its budget.
Expressing his view, Senator Ede Dafinone said Nigerians are tired of “dound bite” as they want to see the results of government’s efforts, not rhetoric.
In a similar vein, Senator Abdul Ningi frowned at the continued rhetoric when it comes to serious national issues. He wondered what effect will the “criminalisation” of the naira will have on the economy and also wanted to know what guarantee the CBN will give to Nigerians that it is going back to its core mandate.
The senators were unanimous in in their condemnation of lack of synergy between government agencies, like SMEDAN is sharing N50,000 to people who are registered to do business, wondering what N50,000 can do for any serious business?
They wanted the Minister of Finance to tell them how he hoped to coordinate the various intervention programmes of the government.
