Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The devaluation of the Naira will further increase inflation in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned.
Spokesman of the bank, Mr Isaac Okorafor, gave this caution in Abia State during a programme this week.
He said there was no point adhering to calls from international bodies supporting the devaluation of the local currency.
“We cannot kill our people just because we want to please foreigners or international organisations. If we float the Naira now, I assure you that inflation will escalate.
“Therefore, it is not the best thing to do at the moment; people calling for this (devaluation of Naira) are not patriotic,” Mr Okorafor said.
The CBN Acting Director in charge of Public Communications was speaking at a sensitization forum in Umuahia on the various intervention schemes put in place by the apex bank.
Present at the meeting were young entrepreneurs, young school leavers, traders, farmers, cooperative societies, artisans amongst others.
Mr Okorafor maintained that the CBN would continue to stabilise the Naira and resist any policy that would make it go beyond the current exchange rate of less than N400 per US Dollar.
He said the best way out the forex crisis, apart from its present interventions, was for Nigerians to patronise made in Nigeria products.
The apex bank’s mouthpiece said if this can be done, money will flow within the economy and there would not be need for forex scarcity or economic downturn as it is being experienced at the moment.
Since February 2017, the CBN has pumped billions of Dollar into the foreign exchange market in order to ease the pressure on Naira.
Also, in order to make agriculture attractive to Nigerians, the central bank came with an Anchor Borrowers’ Programme aimed at providing support to farmers.
This has yielded good results especially in the area of rice production in the country.
