Truth234:
The Senate on Tuesday said the sum of $9 billion had been spent by the federal government to defend the naira.

It expressed worry that only 10 per cent of the N7.4 trillion 2017 budget has so far been implemented barely three months to the end of the year.

Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (APC, Kebbi) who sponsored a motion on stabilising and sustaining post recession growth of the economy, argued that the level of harmony between the fiscal and monetary policies of government remained “very low.”

He expressed frustration over the inadequate funding of the 2017 budget by the executive, fearing it could pull the country back into a recession.

Consequently, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma and the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun were both summoned to appear in plenary to explain the failure to fund the budget.

The motion was unanimously passed by the upper legislature chamber.

Abdullahi tasked the national economy managers to remain focused and ensure that the current weak growth of a mere 0.55 percent is built upon and increased substantially in the months and years to come.

The Senate however, urged both the fiscal and monetary authorities to come together and harmonise policies with a view to drastically reducing the high interest rate that has adversely affected borrowing for investment by the real sector of the economy.

It called on fiscal authorities to drastically reduce the accumulation of domestic debt in order to free the market for better access by the private sector.

Senator Barau Jibril (APC, Kano State) who seconded the motion asked that the managers of the nation’s economy be put on their toes so that they would not be complacent.

He argued that the failure to release money to fund the budget had become a serious threat to the economy.

Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) claimed that “our economic managers are just joggling the economy using ways and means to manipulate it.”

According to him: “If it is true that the foreign reserve has grown from $25 billion to $34 billion, why are we incapacitated in funding the 2017 budget? We must say the truth. We must go back to the drawing board and take key decisions. We must engage in massive production and we must engage in massive spending too. What we have done is not a geniune approach to addressing the problem of the economy and getting outbof recession.”

Senator Biodun Olujumi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Ekiti State while noting that Nigeria is only technically out of recession but still languishing in economic quagmire, lamented that barely three months to the end of the year, the 2017 budget had not recorded 10 per cent implementation.

She said the major problem is that the economic managers were yet to develop a viable economic blue print.

http://investorsking.com/9bn-used-fg-defend-naira-says-senate/

9japrof:
Am against the defending of the naira, in economic terms it is wastage. Who are they defending the naira for? It is still the elites in the society who keeps changing their naira to dollars to keep it for safekeeping in foreign countries.

Manufacturing companies till date are still crying because of less access to forex.

10% implementation of the budget? and una say e go better for this country ? Choi looks like things keep getting worse and worse for this country

Joejonah:


Well said senator. No problem can be solved with lies. APC kept telling lies, the situation of the country keep going worse. Lets stop propaganda and go back to the drawing board. Mismanagement is as worse as corruption.

BLINGZ88:
its not like cbn is dashing the money to banks, they sell it to them to reduce demand. it is not a good solution and I believe that the naira should be allowed to float. this government should forget their promise of #1 to $1 and try to act positively for the economy.

talk4free:
They are just crying because money for constituency projects has not been released. No Christmas money for them yet. Why else will members of both ruling and opposition parties be on the same page as regards policies of the ruling party?

POpikin:
who is fg is it not useless buhari

SBG04:

Yes countries with booming export trade always give their currencies a slight disadvantage to the dollar to cheapen their exports. My point here is the principle of dexterity and manipulating situations to your advantage and not the kumbaya "free float" or "market forces" model that the IMF preaches to third world countries. Any kind of free float will destroy whatever value there is in the naira. That's even minus the attendant inflation. It's not just workable. Can only successfully happen in an utopia, not in the real world.

9japrof:


I believe with you completely on this, but you and I know this approach can only be sustained if the oil price keep appreciating, any decrease in price of oil would make the government pull out on this which would lead to forex shortfall and the attendant effects

POpikin:
who is fg is it not useless buhari

RZArecta:
Float the dollar just like the Egyptians did, allow investors bring forex into the economy. 9 billion dollars could have built a lot of infrastructure but no, herdsman intelligence.

bigpicture001:
...I don't think you will survive existence for one month if we allow the naira float..please dear,be careful what you wish for

abescom:
hindsight is a good and bad thing. Did they envisage price of oil being near zero? Not that oil at the time was circa $80.

Now it is less than $60 and was about $41 at a time. What did gej do with the accrual when it was over $100?

0m0nnakoda:
Theory. many foreigners do business in Nigeria ,in fact many are doing things Nigerians should be doing.If Nigerians were doing those things then we don't need foreigners here to do them. DSTV,Shoprite,come to mind. The biggest palm oil business is foreign owned. Those foreigners that will do business will and those that won't won't . The main problems for business in Nigeria is not exchange rate but security and power.

Dee60:
In Nigeria everyone you meet wants to pretend to be an economist!

First, Senate has a sinister motive, so you should be careful when reading news from them. It may be false. Go to the black market and ask - Demand for USD has fallen significantly. This is because it no longer pays for people to buy dollars and use it as savings!

Nigerian Senate has been leading the fight against anti-corruption. When you hear that corruption will fight back, that's our Senate.

They spend 9 months in a year tearing apart FG's budget but they refuse to disclose to Nigerians how they spend billions of dollars annually.

The lower house has its own - it is called padding!

Now to the Naira - when it depreciates, Nigerians are the first to cry to high heavens! Sorry, who wants to buy a bottle of Coke at N500? In a country where some states cannot even pay minimum wage of N18,000 per month!

Smart countries know how to defend their resources. Britain subsidises tube transport by millions of pounds every day and they also subsidise health. America stoutly defends its agriculture. China protects its Yuan so stoutly, so that they dont get into a vicious cycle. They do that while they develop their agric and industrial base. Once their output is high they can liberalize their economy, because at that point their spendings of USD would have reduced.

There is a lot of divestment going on - Some states in the East have started exporting agric produce. States like Kebbi have grown rice and reduced the forex spent on rice imports substantially!

So, Senate wants to teach us Economics! Start at home. Make your budget transparent.

The truth is Nigeria needs a window, where it protects its currency, while it boosts its local production, so that Naira does not free-float into perdition! Free-floating opens the door for speculators to start piling pressure on the Naira buy hoarding dollars. There is no end in that tunnel!

People talk senselessly about free-floating. Try that when your local production is low and see hyper-inflation speed your economy into doom! Economics 101.

Our Senate is haunted by their many sins. They are the ones holding us to ransom.

LordofNaija:
Still beats me How Goodluck was able to stabilise forex for 5 long years

BLINGZ88:
that's the fear of the unknown. I'm guessing the cbn has their reasons but I'm point is that the current forex policy leads to many uncertainty and no one want to buisness where their is uncertainty.