Home BUSINESS Former CBN Governor, Sanusi and Osinbajo disagree on devaluation

Former CBN Governor, Sanusi and Osinbajo disagree on devaluation

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Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice President, on Saturday reiterated the position of the Federal Government on devaluation of the naira, stating that the currency would not be devalued.Osinbajo

However, a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Joseph Sanusi, replied that delaying the devaluation was postponing the evil day.

The positions were taken at a town hall meeting that the Vice President held with his co-tenants in the Victoria Garden City (VGC) on the Lekki-Epe axis of Lagos.

At the widely attended and thought provoking event, Mr. Osinbajo insisted that devaluation was not on the table, adding “that is the position of government’’.

According to him, the CBN will operate in line with the speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari, after he was elected to come up with flexible exchange rate to be supported by strong monetary policies.

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He said that the foreign exchange policy of government was to stop unnecessary consumption of imported goods and promote local manufacturing.
However, former CBN Governor, Mr. Sanusi, a VGC resident, advised the government to either devalue the currency or stop the confusion between the official and parallel market exchange rates.

He said allowing an official rate at N197 per dollar while the parallel market sold for over N300 was “distractive’’.

“Naira is already devalued and government not accepting it is postponing the evil day,’’ Mr. Sanusi said.

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Mr. Osinbajo had also said government met a falling revenue profile in May 2015, which was down by about 70 per cent compared to the same period of the preceding year.

He aid that in spite of the high cost of about $22 to produce a barrel of crude oil now selling at about $33 dollars, no fewer than 38 per cent of the foreign reserve was spent on importing petroleum products.

He also said the previous administration was spending about N20 billion on food importations annually, which reduced the nation’s foreign reserve drastically from about $40 billion to about $25 billion.

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As a result, he said, the present administration was bent on diversification of the economy from crude oil to agriculture and solid minerals production.

Mr. Osinbajo said the focus on agriculture was to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice, poultry and palm oil production as well as develop the entire agriculture value chain to create wealth and jobs for the teeming youth.

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