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.
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