wesley80:

I think I got my point just right as you just buttressed the point I was trying to make. Forcing importers to source their forex elsewhere amounts to forcing them to patronize the black market - you have to agree they won't stop importing. If anything, these restrictions have made their business more profitable. The more patronage the black market enjoys, the wider the gap it gains with the official rate and it pulls the latter down. Soludo went to ridiculous Heights to bridge this gap in his tenure and I think Emefiele is just recreating it. You don't dig a hole to cover a hole.

The one thing you don't mention is the most obvious result of the policy. The price to the consumer of such imported goods will rise, and unless they are inelastic re demand, the market for such goods will shrink and there will be some import substitution that will be more net positive for our economy. I'm sorry but I have little sympathy for frivolous imports when we have the labour and land mass lying unused because of our own incompetence and lack of foresight.

#change

Change2015:


The one thing you don't mention is the most obvious result of the policy. The price to the consumer of such imported goods will rise, and unless they are inelastic re demand, the market for such goods will shrink and there will be some import substitution that will be more net positive for our economy. I'm sorry but I have little sympathy for frivolous imports when we have the labour and land mass lying unused because of our own incompetence and lack of foresight.

#change

If imported goods become pricier, that is generally good as it serves to curtail imports and to rebalance the economy.

This obsession with maintaining a strong Naira results in an urban bias to policy making. Most Nigerians are rural dwellers for whom imported goods constitute a negligible proportion of their consumption. By maintaining Naira strength at great cost, we expend a great deal of resources to assuage the minority Nigerians who live in cities and for whom imported goods are a daily staple. We do this at the long term expense of having a viable and productive local manufacturing economy.