President Muhammadu Buhari declared late Wednesday in Nairobi that he was yet to be convinced that Nigeria and its people will derive any tangible benefit from an official devaluation of the Naira.

Speaking at an interactive meeting with Nigerians living in Kenya, President Buhari maintained that while export-driven economies could benefit from devaluation of their currencies, devaluation will only result in further inflation and hardship for the poor and middle classes in Nigeria's import-dependent economy.

The President added that he had no intention of bringing further hardship on the country's poor who, he said, have suffered enough already.

Likening devaluing the Naira to having it "killed", President Buhari said that proponents of devaluation will have to work much harder to convince him that ordinary Nigerians will gain anything from it.

The President also rejected suggestions that the Central Bank of Nigeria should resume the sale of foreign exchange to Bureaux de Change (BDCs), saying that the Bureau de Change business had become a scam and a drain on the economy.

"We had just 74 of the bureaux in 2005, now theyhave grown to about 2,800," President Buhari noted.

He alleged that some bank and government officials used surrogates to run the BDCs andprosper at public expense by obtaining foreign exchange from government at official rates and selling it at much higher rates.

"We will use our foreign exchange for industry, spare parts and the development of needed infrastructure.

"We don't have the Dollars to give to the BDCs. Let them go and get it from wherever they can, other than the Central Bank," President Buhari told the gathering.

The President reaffirmed his conviction that about a third of petroleum subsidy payments under the previous administration was bogus.

"They just stamped papers and collected our foreign exchange," he said.

The President appealed to Nigerians studying abroad to bear with his administration as it strives to address the challenges they are facing as a result of new foreign exchange measures.

He said that he was optimistic that the Nigerian economy will stabilize soon with the efficient implementation of measures and policies that have been introduced by his administration.

Garba Shehu
SSA to the President
(Media & Publicity)
January 28, 2016


Lalasticlacla This Is For Nigerians, Do What You Know....

SOURCE:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1702134813333936&substory_index=0&id=1636468759900542&refid=17&_ft_=top_level_post_id.1702134813333936%3Atl_objid.1702134813333936%3Athid.1636468759900542%3A306061129499414%3A69%3A0%3A1454313599%3A548115374496766867&__tn__=%2As

There is a science in the University studying the possibility of common sense slipping through open teethed individuals..


I don forget the name o....

A brilliant person should remind me please

With NG1=$305 bubu has already murdered naira

kilokeys:
There is a science in the University studying the possibility of common sense slipping through open teethed individuals..


I don forget the name o....

A brilliant person should remind me please

Firstly, you have tagged urself unintelligent.

Zombies will blame GEJ for this decision

ozoigbondu:
With NG1=$305 bubu has already murdered naira

not only murdered but also buried the naira. Shame

kilokeys:
There is a science in the University studying the possibility of common sense slipping through open teethed individuals..


I don forget the name o....

A brilliant person should remind me please

The idiotic bubu you are talking about is more dumb than the word dumb

lordizak:

Firstly, you have tagged urself unintelligent.

Aliterate

If u didn't see the humor..

Abeg bubu do something oh... See as things just dey add money like kilode, external battery before is 8k, and now is 12-14k.

kilokeys:
There is a science in the University studying the possibility of common sense slipping through open teethed individuals..


I don forget the name o....

A brilliant person should remind me please

Thank you for confirming how dull you are.

This is a simple sense.... even if we officially devalue what will the average Nigerian gain...

People who looted and shared our excess crude reserves should belamed for this.

But Buhari should do something radical to save our economy.. .. The normal rules won't work here

Nice...

ozoigbondu:
With NG1=$305 bubu has already murdered naira

What is your suggestion?

ozoigbondu:
The idiotic bubu you are talking about is more dumb than the word dumb

Intelligent people don't throw insults at others.

What part of Buhari's argument do you disagree with?

I though most bureau the change operators are northerners?
PMB working against northern interest.

mrvitalis:
This is a simple sense.... even if we officially devalue what will the average Nigerian gain...

People who looted and shared our excess crude reserves should belamed for this.

But Buhari should do something radical to save our economy.. .. The normal rules won't work here

this is one question that I keep asking the devaluation advocates, what do we export? what do we produce? importation is tough now, it will be tougher after devaluation because there i just not enough $ to meet misplaced taste of Nigerians. if Naira is devalued to N250 today, balck market will go to N350, Nigerians who have access to foreign currency are not patriotic, they do not care.

Great decision by PMB

Remii:


this is one question that I keep asking the devaluation advocates, what do we export? what do we produce? importation is tough now, it will be tougher after devaluation because there i just not enough $ to meet misplaced taste of Nigerians. if Naira is devalued to N250 today, balck market will go to N350, Nigerians who have access to foreign currency are not patriotic, they do not care.

The e-touts can't understand what you are saying so stop wasting your time, most of them don't know that Nigeria cannot spend the dollars she does not have neither can she turn our naira to tissue paper because we have long throat for foreign things.

strong headedness is not an economic policy

Buhari's strong headedness has created a parallel, false economy where the street value of naira is wild off the mark compared to the official rate and yet only those with connection to Government will buy dollar at official rate from the CBN while CBN rations sales of foreign currency to the public

Nigeria should be doing more to defend the naira rather than just saying "NO"!

President Buhari maintained that while export-driven economies could benefit from devaluation of their currencies, devaluation will only result in further inflation and hardship for the poor and middle classes in Nigeria's import-dependent economy.

Strictly speaking, what the president said is theoretically correct, but I believe he is simply regurgitating what someone else must have recited to him. What he said is only a linear perspective to a multidimensional macroeconomic situation. Is the president smarter than all the other oil exporting countries who have allowed their currencies to adjust to the fall in oil prices?
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Dear Mr President, contrary to your pretentious FX policy, kindly be informed that the Naira has already been devalued to ~N305/$. I take it that you and the CBN Governor are merely subsidizing the exchange rate @ N197/$ to some critical sectors, just the same way you subsidized for Pilgrims @ N160/$. And you say you fear inflation? Alright, just wait till prices of items in the market start reflecting the distorted exchange rate.
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And please, you must desist forthwith from discussing Monetary Policy issues. Whenever you are asked a related question, please refer them to the CBN Governor. The exchange rate will always respond more to economic realities rather than to your personal pride or fiat.

ozoigbondu:
The idiotic bubu you are talking about is more dumb than the word dumb

Guy U wicked!

The foreign investors will just come, look at the fixed official rate and the parallel price of a dollar to naira and shake their head.what an unserious bunch of black asses.And please all these politicians here including the president himself should abstain from discussing the economy because most of them have little or no clue about basic economics.The VALUE of a currency DOES NOT depend on your emotions or your dreams of an industrialised nigeria but on the DEMAND of the naira in the money market!The true VALUE of the naira is what is obtainable in the parallel market and not the fixed CBN official rate.There are so many people especially those nigerians living in the diaspora who have lots of foreign currencies(of course their host countries must have devalued their own currency to the dollst)to send but sees the cbn official rate as funny and unserious,hence they will keep their money waiting until the naira is OFFICIALLY devalued which is BOUND to happen sooner or later!I am still waiting to see some of you here supporting this policy that are importers of anything including raw materials or cars who have gotten the dollars easily at the official rate.The price of everything has skyrocketed in the market and the president is saying he don't want to suffer the poor masses smh

You won't kill naira but you are strangling it already. This dullard sef.

mrvitalis:
This is a simple sense.... even if we officially devalue what will the average Nigerian gain...

People who looted and shared our excess crude reserves should belamed for this.

But Buhari should do something radical to save our economy.. .. The normal rules won't work here

The problem is that the Naira is already devalued.What the president is resisting is official devaluation but very few people, certainly not the common man, have access to the official rate.

You made a point about corruption, but you fail to recognise that corruption is abetted by maintaining an official rate that is significantly divergent from the market rate. People with connections can, with 200m Naira obtain $1m at the official rate and then sell the $1m for 305m Naira at the market rate. In the Abacha era, the official rate was 22 Naira to the dollar while the market rate hit 85 Naira. The common man did not benefit from this but the highly connected did.

It is also a major failure of this government that it insists on making pronouncements on currency policy when this should be the sole preserve of the CBN.

gunuvi:

not only murdered but also buried the naira. Shame

The currency id heading to 400 by year ending if this expansionary budget is passed. Soludo and Sanusi have both condemned his statist policies

Ok. [size=24pt]Looks like frontpage material, lemme book space[/size]

mrvitalis:
This is a simple sense.... even if we officially devalue what will the average Nigerian gain...

People who looted and shared our excess crude reserves should belamed for this.

But Buhari should do something radical to save our economy.. .. The normal rules won't work here

Devaluation is not necessarily intended to bring gain to the masses but to prevent further pain.
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A $700 laptop will cost the average person N175k (N250/$) rather than N213k (N305/$). That could be considered a gain in my book.