Market News

By Wale Akinselure

Two factions of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), South West zone are divergent in calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele over the high rate that the naira is exchanging against foreign currencies like the dollar and pound.

While the Adegboye Olatunji-led faction of the NANS says that Emefiele should be blamed for what it described as the worthless value of the naira in the international market, the Tegbe Stephen faction holds that Emefiele should not be blamed for the high exchange rate.

Earlier in the week, the Olatunji faction had noted that the fact that the naira exchanged for N710 against the dollar and the economic hardship that Nigerians faced showed the incompetence and incapacity of the CBN to manage the nation’s economy.

However, the Tegbe faction attributed the high exchange rate to issues like the Russia-Ukraine conflict and attendant sanctions pressure on the dollar owing to contractions, recessions, and COVID-19 in some countries of the world.

He noted that the pressure on the dollar after the world came out of COVID-19 was a setback for the offshore dollar lending market.

Tegbe, who addressed a press conference in Ibadan, dissociated itself from any call for the sack of Emefiele, saying the high rate of the naira against the dollar is because COVID-19 stunted industrial activities around the world followed by a lot of companies greatly seeking dollars to buy raw materials when work resumed.

Tegbe said the council acknowledged efforts by the CBN governor to stabilise the naira including the ‘The Naira 4 Dollar scheme’, provision of a N50 billion loan facility for small and medium scale enterprises, discontinuation of the sales of CBN to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators, circulation of naira to encourage domestic production and consumption.

He added that the CBN also provided a credit facility in the National Youth Investment Programme, extended the naira for dollar scheme from the IMTOs to the IEFX window, reduced Forex subsidy by 7.5 per cent, supported agribusiness and agro-possessing business up to the sum of N73billion, adopted NAFEX rate as benchmark rate which was aimed at unifying the exchange rates.

Rather than downplay Emefiele’s efforts, Tegbe argued that Nigerian students and youths must continue to make positive contributions toward finding solutions to the state of the global economy and Nigeria’s fragile security situation.