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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several economists including former CBN governor, Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, have been calling on nigeria to devalue its currency in order to get out of the current economic doldrums.
But President Muhammadu Buhari has stated clearly that devaluation was not in the economic plans of the country.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo explains why. According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is opposed to devaluation because it offers no solutions to the nation’s economy.
The vice president spoke at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday while receiving Italian and Canadian ambassadors, Fulvio Rustico and Perry John Calderwood respectively.
He said: “I don’t agree on devaluation and it is not that I am doctrinaire about it. In the first place, it is not a solution–we are not exporting significantly. And the way things are, devaluation will not help the local economy. What we need to do is to start spending more on the economy and then things will ease up a bit.”
The vice president noted that the issues around the economy are no exact sciences, saying that the important thing is to be reasonably flexible in dealing with them.
He said the current foreign exchange restriction was a temporary measure to ensure that “we don’t deplete our foreign exchange substantially at a time when the price of oil in the international market is dropping.”