Stakeholders have said that except Nigeria produces more for exportation and the attitude toward locally-manufactured goods changes, the current challenge with Foreign Exchange (FX) will persist.
They stated this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Monday against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s policy on FX.
Chief Abiola Alli, Chairman of Public Policy Advocacy, Ibadan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said government’s unification policy was a right step.
He, however, said that it should not be the only tool to regulate the market.
“The FX we are regulating is not coming from Nigeria but from other countries. This is because we don’t produce most of the things we consume.
“This is, however, not to say that we don’t have comparative advantage to produce some of the things we import, but our attitude to locally-made goods must change.
“We recommend that government should boost the export to generate foreign exchange by removing the bottlenecks in the exportation of goods to other countries and encouraging those in the exportation business so that we can also earn FX,” he said.
Also, a bureau de change operator, Mr. Audu Jubril, said that the unification policy had been affecting the undulating prices of the foreign exchange, adding that banks had been selling FX at prices that soothed them.
He noted that the banks got the FX at the Central Bank of Nigeria rate but were selling at higher rates due to high demand.
“This has affected the prices of FX at the black market and dollar is sold at N780 per dollar, and I don’t know what the situation will be like by next week,” Jubril said.
A Financial Consultant, Mr. Tunji Adepeju, said Nigeria had been operating three types of exchange rate for some times now, with some people taking advantage of the situation to enrich themselves, especially those who had access to the official rate.
He said that round-tripping and other sharp practices had continued to increase the FX rate, with negative impacts on the nation’s reserves.
Adepeju noted some sharp practices by commercial banks and individuals which had contributed to the FX problem in the country and commended the President Bola Tinubu-led administration for the unified rate.
According to him, FX will keep fluctuating, as it keeps responding to the forces of demand and supply, but by the time Nigeria starts exporting goods and services, we will have more than enough dollars and the demand for it will reduce.
This is because manufacturers will source their raw materials locally and there will be value addition, while the pressure on the dollar will reduce and invariably, the exchange rate will go down,” Adepeju said.
He urged Nigerians to minimise their demand for foreign goods and consume locally-made ones
