THE presidency has stated that President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s administration is working on initiatives to boost the Naira.
Dr Tope Fasua, Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, stated this yesterday during the “Cowries to Cash” lecture and lunch in Abuja.
The value of the Naira has steadily increased in recent days and according to Fasua, the trend is projected to continue as a result of government measures.
While arguing that a country’s currency’s depreciation is a sign of conquering, he stated, “When you want to destroy a country, destroy its currency first.”
He warned Nigerians who are storing foreign currencies in the anticipation that the local currency will continue to plummet that the government’s actions will shock them.
“For those who are speculating, praying, and wishing that the currency would become nonsense, I believe that the policies being rolled out by the central bank and the government that I serve, led by the President, will shock some of them,” said Fasua, who represented Vice President Kashim Shettima at the event.
“You need to listen to the agenda, the man himself (Tinubu) and you will see that the level at which he is thinking is far ahead of most of us.
“You know, he has some very great ideas coming up. Some of them are what you’ve seen reversing the fall in the value of the naira, but he has also challenged us to review forward many of the targets, for example, the idea that Nigeria’s economy will get to a trillion dollars. He wants to achieve it by 2026.
“Some people thought that the naira would continue to lose value. Of course, we can already see what’s going on and who knows, maybe the Naira will strengthen even further to maybe something 500 or 600. I’m beginning to see some of those.”
He maintained that there is going to be some tectonic reorganization of the banking sector to make the naira more stable and stronger.
“If you want to position your exports properly, you have to be strategic, even in terms of the value of your currency. So you’re going to see all of these, including efforts from the fiscal side.
“We have patriots running the economy right now. And naysayers have to be very, very afraid,” Fasua said.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Olayemi Cardoso, who was represented at the event by the Director of Banking Supervision, Mustapha Haruna, said the country was facing economic challenges as a result of a number of macroeconomic issues related to some of the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
The CBN Governor said the book (Cowries to Cashless) eloquently captured the evolutionary journey in the history of the CBN particularly with regards to the phenomenal transformation of the Nigerian payment system in the last two or three decades.
The advent of the cashless policy, according to Cardoso, has accelerated this shift.
“One of our strategic priorities in this effort is to foster financial inclusion and I’m very sure you will also relate to the progress we have made based on the current numbers.
“We have financial inclusion in the neighborhood of about 64 per cent. Over 64 per cent of Nigerians have access to formal financial services. Our vision is to push the boundaries to over 95 per cent and we are well on course, in achieving that objective.”
Cardoso pledged that the CBN would continue to work with key stakeholders, particularly the fiscal authorities, to solve a number of critical concerns and difficulties confronting the country.
Princess Iphie, the author and Executive Director of Asher Global Treasures, spoke about the need of preserving the evolution of money and its history in Nigeria.
Iphie said: “If you don’t know what yesterday was and you don’t know what is today, definitely you will not know what tomorrow will be. So we started from Cowries to Manillas and then other ones before we started with the exchange of goods and then this is where we are right now — the technological age and loads of innovation.”
