By Dipo Olowookere
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been urged not to heed to calls for the devaluation of the nation’s currency, the Naira, warning that such step will hurt Nigerians and the economy.
President of Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Mr Aminu Gwadebe, at a meeting with directors and chief executives of BDC operators in Lagos recently, stressed that devaluing the local currency at this critical time will add salt to injury because of the present high cost of living.
During the group’s sensitisation meeting, Mr Gwadabe said, “We are not in support of any attempt to devalue the Naira further than N360/$1 because as far as BDCs are concerned, the exchange rate is N360 to a dollar.
“All those who are saying N305, N306 to a dollar, well, for us, this is not the transaction rate. These are rates for government obligations, it is not everybody. How many percent of Nigerians get dollar at N306?
“So, if unification is for everybody in the market to be buying at N360, fine and good. The BDC already has that kind of rate happening in the market.
“Yes, the unification of the various exchange is germane, but any discussion on devaluation at a critical level of the economy should be completely discouraged.”
He further pointed out that, “Devaluation will not do any good to the economy. As you can see, there is border closure, which has led to improvement in economic activities. But we are still struggling with electricity; in terms of its availability, and also Nigeria still remains an import-dependent country.”
Mr Gwadabe said ABCON will continue to collaborate with the CBN and the government to checkmate any volatility in the forex market, adding that the association will continue to comply with central bank’s regulatory guidelines affecting their operations in the country.
“The aspect of the examination we are comfortable with is firstly, the submission of our audited accounts; that has improved tremendously. A lot of [our] members have now known the implications of not rendering their audited accounts to the CBN and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), more especially now that the drive of the government is revenue generation.
“So, this is one aspect we want to emphasise to [our] members to ensure they belong to the tax net [and] comply with the necessary regulations. Also, we have automated our operations, our members are now on our platform which is www.abcon.ng.org, where they render their returns to the CBN from the comfort of their offices.
“These are some of the achievements [of our group] and we felt we have to let the media know [about them],” he further said.
Adedapo Adesanya