President Muhammadu Buhari has said that any attempt to further devaluate the naira would result in hardship and mischief for millions of the poor in the country.
Buhari on a three-day visit to the East African country of Kenya said that he was not yet convinced that the people of his country would derive any tangible benefit from further deregulation of an economy that is largely dependent on import and low internal productivity apart from over-dependence on crude oil production.
Earnings from oil revenue have taken serious falls from a 2011 high price of about $120 to a current price of $32 per barrel.
The president also rejected suggestions that the Central Bank of Nigeria should resume the sale of foreign exchange to Bureau de Change, saying that the Bureau de Change business had become a scam and a drain on the economy.
“We had just 74 of the bureau in 2005, now they have grown to about 2,800,” President Buhari noted.
He alleged that some bank and government officials used surrogates to run the Bureau de Change and prosper 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 Bureau de Change. 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.