Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele has said that the bank is working on measures to stabilize the naira in 2016 so as to boost the economy.
Emefiele made this revelation during an interactive session with some editors in Abuja. When asked to go into details, he said “Don’t ask me because I will not disclose our strategy for now,’’ adding that doing so would be counter-productive and per-emptive.
He advised importers to abide by the new rules which limit the importation of finished products and food to reduce the pressure on the nation’s scarce foreign exchange.
He said “CBN will soon start a nationwide campaign to sensitise Nigerians to items excluded from importation.
“This is part of efforts to save more foreign exchange and stabilise the nation’s currency. The solution to free fall of the naira is by controlling the demand for foreign currencies such as the dollar.
“If we are able to reduce importation, the demand for the dollar will fall automatically.’’
He urged public servants to engage in farming which according to him will help in sustaining our economy, he said “Public servants should also engage in farming because the only business public servants are allowed to engage in is farming. And you don’t need power to farm tomato, vegetables or fish.”
He added that “Our situation is not as bad as people think.
“When you devalue, there must be structural adjustment. We have never followed up with structural adjustment.
“So, the approach we are adopting at the moment is that, having done a 22-per cent adjustment in the currency, let us structurally adjust our position.
“Let us say, look, stop importing rice; stop importing toothpick; stop importing tomato from South Africa; stop importing 20 million eggs daily from Africa.
“We are saying Nigeria can do without these items. And the truth is that the reserves are no longer there.”