The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has given his take as to why the naira has been in such a freefall in recent months.
The CBN governor claimed that the fall against the Dollar is mostly because Nigeria has nothing to export besides oil.
Emefiele said this during a career talk organised for the teenagers of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) at TEAP school, Abuja.
He was of the opinion that Nigeria’s over-dependence on oil created this situation and is the reason why the Naira is in such a precarious state.
He believes the only way for Nigeria to dig herself out of this hole is to diversify the economy and look at other revenue streams a move which he says the Federal Government has embarked upon.
He said, “Our currency is naira but there are lots of things we buy but we cannot use the naira.
“We have to use dollars but do we earn dollar? We earn dollar when we have something to sell to people who have dollar so we can gain in Naira.
“In Nigeria, the only thing we have is oil. So when the prices of oil fall, everything falls.
“We then have less dollars and in that case, those who want the dollar will then need more naira to be able to meet the demand.
“Those who did economics will know that the price is determined between supply and demand.
“So if the supply for dollar is very low and the demand for dollar is high, the price of naira will be low.
“So as a country, we should have more goods to sell and export so that we can have enough dollars for supply and the naira can grow.”