President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that the naira won’t be devalued.
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This Day newspaper said religious leaders under the auspices of Northern Inter Faith and Religious Organisations of Nigeria (NIFROM) have urged the federal government to extend the presidential amnesty programme granted to former Niger Delta militants to members of the Boko Haram sect operating in the North-east.
“The President’s entourage obviously collects travel allowances in dollars on official rate of N199 and come back to Nigeria to change it at the open market rate of N400”. The official naira rate versus the dollar stands unchanged at 197.
“Therefore, the reality that we must all accept is that we must allow the forces of demand and supply to determine the value of our currency, not administrative fiat”.
Fayose said: “With the gap between the official rate of N199 and open market rate of over N400 to one dollar, the naira has already been devalued”. Pressure has been mounting on the government to devalue the currency officially in line with market realities as it is now trading at about N380 per dollar at the parallel market though the official rate remainw at between N197 and N199 per dollar. “Anything other than this will mean that we are deceiving ourselves with forced foreign exchange rates and it is my position that this regime of deceit must stop”.
Achieving a greater stable price of crude oil will top the agenda of discussions, Mr. Adesina said, as OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing countries seek ways to get more money for exported crude.
“Before going on to Doha, the president will also visit Medina and Mecca to pray for greater peace, prosperity and progress in Nigeria”, the statement read.
The president who would be away for a week will be accompanied to the journey by a high-powered Federal Government delegation, including the Minister of State (Petroleum) and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela said last week after talks in Doha that they were ready to freeze production at January levels if other producers do the same.
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According to him, the current forex policy is short-changing Nigerians and it has caused collapse of business with prices of goods skyrocketing every day. “For our government, we like to encourage local production and efficiency”. But we are not competing and exporting but importing everything including toothpicks.
