29 August 2016, Lagos – The General Manager, Western Ports, Nigeria Ports Authority, Chief Michael Ajayi, has said that continued naira devaluation is a key factor that would ensure Nigeria’s exit from Organisation of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC).
Ajayi stated this in a paper titled: “Nigeria’s Economy and Way Forward” during the Induction of new members of the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA) in Lagos. He said “As a way forward, if we must continue to devalue the naira, then we must pull out of OPEC to enable us enjoy the fruits of devaluation.”
He also hinted that the current devaluation of the currency under a floating exchange regime designed to attract more foreign exchange into the economy has achieved nothing but has rather brought misery, double digit inflation (16.5 percent), high interest rates and closure of factories.
He said that the constant devaluation of the naira since 1985 to date has been unhelpful in redressing the distortions in Nigeria’s economy, adding that Nigeria has vacillated from Second Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM) in 1985 to Foreign Exchange Market (FEM) and now a floating currency exchange system. “The present structure of Nigeria economy does not support devaluation by any stretch of intellectual imagination and thinking.”
- Vanguard
