The senator representing Delta North senatorial district in the Nigerian Senate, Ned Nwoko, has insisted that no economic policy would work in the country as long as Nigeria continues to allow use of different currencies.
The lawmaker stated this during Wednesday’s edition of
Channels Television’s Politics Today, noting that the economy is currently in
tatters.
The Senator said that Nigeria is the only country where
multiple currencies are being used concurrently, thereby making the local
currency valueless.
“Our economy as it is, is in tatters. It is in some kind of
quagmire. It doesn’t matter how you look at it or policies you’re trying to
introduce here and there, nothing will work,” the lawmaker said.
“Nothing will work as long as we keep tying the exchange
rate to our consumption. When we became an independent nation we had naira and
our currency was quite strong.
“Then suddenly, we began to have other currencies, dollar,
particularly, and pounds and now Euro. There’s no country that I know in the
world that has the use of multiple currencies.
“If you go to Britain with the dollar, you must change it at
the BDC. You cannot pay for anything with the dollars in the UK. Everybody is
paid their salaries in pounds in the UK. The same thing when you go to America.
Everybody uses dollars.
“So, for things to work, assuming that we agree to phase out
the use of foreign currency in Nigeria, what it means is that if you want to
buy oil, gas or gold in Nigeria, it would require you to use only the naira.
“So, if they’re coming from the UK for example, they’d look
for Naira so that they can transact because they know they can’t use any other
currency.
“Currently, nobody looks for Naira because we’ve made it so
easy for them to transact with other currencies. They can come here with any
currency and that means effectively, there is no global demand for our Naira.
Our money has no value beyond Naira.
“For things to work, we must prevent the use of foreign
currencies and then people will start to look for the Naira. When they begin to
look for Naira, our currency will appreciate.”
Ned Nwoko’s bill for the prohibition of foreign currency use
in Nigeria is currently before the Senate.
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