The Nigerian Association of
Chambers of Commerce, Industry,
Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA)
arm of the Organised Private
Sector (OPS) has called for the
adoption of Nigeria’s “Naira” as
the single currency for ECOWAS
sub region.
NACCIMA said that for this to
happen, first, the Naira should be
revalued for it to be at par with
the American dollar as it was in
the 80s.
In a chat with Vanguard, John
Isemede, NACCIMA Director
General, pointed out that the
much talked about economic
integration has been elusive for
years because the requirements
for the convergence can’t be met
by the participating countries.
He argued for instance, “our
import cultures have not allowed
economic integration and taking
orders from other people to run
our own country. Again, how can
we achieve the economic bloc?
We are talking of the Common
External Tariff which will take off
next year; we are a sub region
and not a custom union. For us to
be a custom union, incentives,
VAT, import duties, tariff and
non-tariff must be the same
thing.
Today, VAT in Nigeria is 5
percent, Benin Republic 20
percent; Ghana 17 percent and if
we now have all these, why will
the borders not be porous and
smuggling not be booming
because there is a big advantage
of routing your goods through
Nigeria at 5 percent. How can we
achieve free movement of goods
with the differences in VAT.? “
In view of this, he said “If we can
develop our economy internally
like what happened in the 80s,
today the naira can become
ECOWAS single currency. I can
give you the exchange rates of
the Nigerian currency for over 30
years. In 1980 what was the
exchange rate? It was between 50
and 60 kobo to the U.S. Dollar.
When SAP was introduced it was
N4.2 to a dollar in 1986.
“So all we have to do is to work
on our own Naira because in the
past, people were traveling with
the Naira to abroad because the
Naira was more or less the single
currency in West Africa. If the
value of the naira today is N50 to
the US$, a lot of experts in
America would come back to
Nigeria because the value of the
currency. If you are mighty, other
economies will run after you,” he
said.
According to him, Ghana Cedis
and the CFA may not qualify for
the single currency because they
are overvalued and have been
depreciating for almost 20 years;
how can they meet the
convergence?
“In fact, we cannot wait for this
people because there can never
be a convergence. It can’t work.
The CFA today is a member of
the Euro because when France
decided to surrender the French
franc to Euro the CFA
automatically became Euro; if you
are doing business with
francophone countries if you
invoiced your goods in dollars and
pounds, they may not pay you
because their currency is not tied
to dollar and pound. But if you
invoice your goods in Euro, you
get your money in jiffy because
their currency that was once tied
to the French franc is now tied to
the Euro,” he said.

This is the kinda news that turns the stomach of the 'almighty' USA.

Its crap to me and it wont work. Cos this set that want this implemented are self centered and don't care about the ecowas unity.. Have we not agreed on making eco currency.!!? What's all this division