The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, has said he expects the exchange rate to improve following the ongoing exchange reforms of President Bola Tinubu and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
According to him, countries which have liberalised their foreign exchange market like Nigeria have enjoyed better exchange rates, expressing confidence Nigeria foreign exchange market will perfomer better.
He said global indices had shown that things would improve, advising local and foreign investors to take steps in this direction.
His comments came about six months after Tinubu removed rate cap on the exchange rate, among other currency reforms.
He said, “Mr. President has signed two Executive Orders. We have been deceiving ourselves; we have run a system where we don’t have dollars, or we don’t have foreign exchange anymore. So even if you desire to enjoy repatration, you don’t have, because you have boxed yourself into a corner. It has to be a willing-buyer, willing-seller market.
“There are things you can’t control. If somebody makes legislation and says that every bag of yams will cost N100, the people who hold the yams will just take them quickly back to the store and lock them. So the steps taken by Mr. President and the central bank may be inconvenient now in terms of the fluctuation, but we believe it will stabilise and get better. Countries that have chosen that route have done better on average in the long-run.”
