Leading opposition figure, Peter Obi has condemned the reported attacks on Bureau de Change (BDC) operators by state actors in the country, describing it as ill-advised and wrongly directed.
Obi spoke in a Sunday statement shared on his verified Facebook page.
The Herald can report that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raided some BDC operators in the Wuse Zone 4 area of Abuja on Monday, February 19, and arrested no fewer than 50 ‘illegal’ operators.
Similar raids have also taken place in Port Harcourt, Lagos and Kano.
The raids followed an announcement by the anti-graft agency that it had raised a Special Task Force in all its commands across the country to clamp down on individuals mutilating the naira and dollarising the Nigerian economy.
Reacting to the development, Obi said, “The recent reported attacks and disruption of the business activities of Bureaux de Change (BDCs) operators in different urban centers across the country by Government Agencies, are ill-advised and wrongly directed.
“Rather than solve the problem, the action will further escalate and worsen the exchange rate situation in the country. The BDCs are not the primary suppliers of forex nor do they create demand. They only provide a market to sellers and buyers of foreign currency.
“They are part and parcel of every economy and can be found even in the developed economies of the world. To think that the BDCs are the cause of the declining value of the Naira is a smack on rational economic thinking.”
Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), said the only way to shore up the value of our currency is to move the country from consumption to production, especially export-led production, and fight corruption, which allows unproductive money to pursue the available supply of foreign currency.
“As long as Nigeria remains an unproductive economy and corruption continues unfettered with people in possession of unproductive excess cash, the value of our currency will continue to depreciate.
“It’s important therefore that government authorities properly understand the workings of a modern economy and channel their efforts accordingly,” the former Anambra governor said.