The Nigerian Naira has in the 11 months since Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, assuming office suffered tremendous hit in the parallel market resulting in one of the major source of hardship faced by by the citizens as access to Forex has almost been blocked off completely.
On Thursday, the naira took yet another hit as it plummeted further down the value rung to trade at 341 to the Dollar at the parallel market, a further slide compared to its value at the close of market on Wednesday before the announcement of the removal of subsidy on petrol.
However, Mr President has been called on severally to devalue the naira but he remains adamant quoting his previous administration of 1984/1985 to have survived the trying time based on his decision to shun the currency devaluation advice from all quarters.
The Vice President yesterday at an event organised by Renaissance Capital in Lagos State while speaking to investors hinted at the Federal government’s plan to finally accept devaluation of the currency as he said the Federal government was working to “substantially re-evaluate” it’s foreign exchange policy and put in place a more flexible approach to the issue.
He further noted that the Federal Government “expect that with a more flexible policy, we will be able to attract more capital into the system and ease business.”
In the Vice President’s statement at the event, he further revealed that although the executive arm of the government was not responsible for such policy reforms, the Central Bank under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele will tackle the problem soon.
“We believe there must be some substantial re-evaluation of the foreign exchange policy especially with a view to increasing foreign exchange supply, encouraging capital importation and also being able to allow free flow of remittances…”