- On November 3, 2023, Legit.ng hosted financial, economy and policy experts, Nancy Nnaji, Paul Alaje, and Chinenye Uwanaka, on its Twitter space, to discuss the restoration of the national currency
- Over 500 listeners tuned into this space between the hours of 19:00 hours and 20:30 hours
- At the end of the session, speakers had shared strategies on stabilising the naira, with focus on key economic sectors and pillars, including listeners who contributed to the evening’s conversation.
Against a backdrop of current issues in Nigeria, particularly the case of the unstabilised naira, Legit.ng hosted Nancy Nnaji, Host and Executive Producer, Moneyline with Nancy on AIT; Paul Alaje, Chief Economist at SPM Professionals, and Director of Research & Development at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Nigeria; Chinenye Uwanaka, Co-founder, Africa Policy Conference, and Managing partner, The Firma Advisory; to an X (former Twitter) space conversation on rescuing the Naira. From Legit.ng, Victor Enengedi, HOD, Business News Desk, and Nkem Ikeke, Copy Editor, joined this conversation to bring more insight from the public.
Titled ‘How Can the Naira be Rescued?’, the speakers shared their opinions about factors contributing to the decline of the naira, and what the Government must do to restore the dignity of our currency.
Kicking off the conversation of the evening by answering a question posed by the moderator, Financial talk show host and analyst, Nancy Nnaji stated that the Naira’s stability is impacted by certain factors that contribute to foreign exchange, such as oil production or exportation prices, and diaspora remittance. Nnaji stated that since the way we access foreign exchange is impacted by these, then the strength of our naira is equally dependent on these factors. As such, if oil production rises and Nigerians in diaspora remit more dollars back home, the Naira might begin to see some positive advancement against the forces of the foreign market. She also advocated the patronage of locally made goods, asking the listeners for how many Made in Nigeria goods they were wearing at the time of the X space, and citing that as a reason for why things need to change for the Naira to gain against the market.
Speaking to policy and implementation in the support of Naira gains in the market, Policy influencer, Chinenye Uwanaka, cited ‘policy summersault’ as the inhibition to the naira stability. She stated that the Nigerian policy makers adopt a fire brigade approach which leads to policy uncertainties, and further stunts the Naira.
“Our policy makers come up with things on a whim, and this affects the stability of our currency. Their Draculean policies such as the ban on importation for example, leads to smuggling and this consequently causes the hike of prices. To balance out this instability, we need to create more consistent policies, have a national vision, and a direction on policy to implementation.”
Chinenye also spoke about beneficial business policies that could help business owners. She urged the government to provide safety nets for businesses by providing incentives that will cushion the effect of the economy in times like this. She further touched on how policy makers can develop and implement the best policies that would help the economy make a gradual recovery.
“Policy must be evidenced-based and user-centric. Policy makers need to gather data from the citizens, as far as the grass roots. Find out their pain-points and the gruelling effects of existing policies imposed, to find out if these policies are effective or need to change. Once done, our policy makers should learn to track implementation and evaluate.”
Economics expert, Paul Alaje had different opinions about rescuing the Naira. He expressed that perception is fueling the decline in the currency as citizens even rate the currency lower than the US Dollars, and would rather keep money or transact in other currencies. He advised that for the Naira to be rescued, the CBN has to intervene to build more confidence in our local currency.
“The CBN has to restore confidence in investing in Nigeria. By making electricity available and beefing up security, improving production and infrastructure, we can attract local and foreign investors to keep their businesses in Nigeria. The CBN must also provide useful advice to the Federal Government, to strategically use monies borrowed to create self-serving infrastructure that can save the economy.”
Alaje also urged Nigerians to use the official rate in transacting, and say no to black market exchanges and trades.
Legit.ng’s Business news desk HOD, Victor Enengedi called for accountability and systems set up around the Bureau de Change businesses in the country, so as to ensure that they don’t mess up frameworks and structures being put in place to stabilise the Naira.
A listener turned contributor on the X space, Ifeoma Illoh had a very interesting addition to the conversation. She advocated Enterprise Development as the way out of our currency decline. According to Illoh, Nigeria needs to improve the manufacturing strength behind its enterprises, and move towards building a service economy and creative economy. Citing Singapore’s GDP as an example, and how the country has boosted its economy through enterprise sectors, Illoh urged the Nigerian government to take a similar approach.
Illoh also urged everyone on the space to promote ‘Made in Nigeria’ to save the economy. Comparing Nigeria leaders who enjoy buying foreign cars in their droves, to leaders in other countries like China, Japan and Korea who drive cars made and assembled in their countries, thus strengthening their currencies.
Rounding off the conversation, the speakers urged Nigerians to walk the talk, take action, keep making demands for improvement from the government, so all can enjoy the dividends of Nigeria’s democracy.
