Osinbajo, Sanusi squabble over naira devaluation

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Joseph Sanusi on Saturday expressed divergent views over whether or not government should devalue the nation’s currency the naira.

While Osinbajo, reaffirmed government position that naira will not be devalued in spite of pressures to act otherwise, Sanusi replied, that delaying the devaluation was akin to postponing the evil day.

NAN reports that both men took the positions at a town hall meeting which Osinbajo held with his neighbours in Victoria Garden City on the Lekki-Epe axis of Lagos.

Osinbajo, who insisted that devaluation was not on the table, said the CBN would operate in line with Buhari’s position to come up with flexible exchange rate to be supported by strong monetary policies.

He said the foreign exchange policy of government was to stop unnecessary consumption of imported goods and promote local manufacturing.

Read also: Forex crisis: CBN reshuffles key directors

The vice president further said the previous administration was spending about N20bn on food importation annually, which reduced the nation’s foreign reserve drastically from about $40bn to about $25bn.

However, 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,” Sanusi said.

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