By Kadiri Abdulrahman
An Economist, Dr Tope Fasua says that some corrupt and unpatriotic officials are responsible for the continuous depreciation of the Naira.
Fasua, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an Abuja based consultancy firm, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.
He said that some business owners were also responsible for the fall of the Naira, in spite of efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to strengthen and stabilise the currency.
NAN reports that the apex bank had adopted several policies to stabilise the Naira, including restricting foreign exchange transactions to commercial banks, while excluding Bureaux de Change.
“The Naira is under constant attack for the fact that many of our people in some financial institutions are not patriotic. All sorts of opinions have been used to attack the currency.
“Some of them are people who have dollar positions. They have assets denominated in dollars, and they do everything to ensure that the Naira continues to crash, ” he said.
Fasua said that the constant opinion by some “stakeholders” that the Naira is overvalued is part of the conspiracy against the currency.
“The Nigerian monetary authorities have really not done anything untoward that depreciates the Naira.They are not doing anything that they should not do with the currency.
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“But some officials within the monetary authority in the finance ministry and the CBN; people entrusted with the management of the Naira are part of those attacking it.
“We should improve our patriotism and understand that our currency represents us.
” The more useless the Naira becomes, the more devalued the Nigerian currency will be viewed in the International community,” he said.
The economist also commended the CBN for its restriction on cryprocurrency transactions within the Nigerian banking system, and for introducing its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the eNaira.
He urged the CBN to take steps to enable the use of the eNaira in foreign countries so as to further boost its visibility.
“Though the eNaira is experimental, it is a worthy alternative to cryptocurrency, and has emerged as the most successful CBDC in the world.
“It is not a good thing for Nigeria to be known as one of the highest cryptocurrency trading countries. A recent IMF report says that most countries that are fraudulent embrace cryptocurrency.
“The eNaira is a good alternative to the cryptocurrency, and the CBN should enable its use abroad to further boost its profile, ” he said. (NAN)
