Utomi: CBN ‘missteps’ contributed to Naira depreciation

According to Pat Utomi, a political economist, ‘missteps’ made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) contributed to the incessant fall of the naira.

Utomi stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily at the weekend.

Recall that the naira exchanges for about N1,400 to a dollar in the parallel market as of now and has been on a downward slide against major world currencies in the past few months.

President Bola Tinubu’s administration, upon its inception, floated the currency.

But Utomi said there have not been many changes due to wrong moves by Nigeria’s apex bank.

“For many years, Nigeria has depended on foreign exchange sent home by the diaspora. Diaspora has been a significant part of the economy.
“They are supporting their people from there because things are not going well for most of their people. But you know what, that leads to an inflow of foreign exchange into the country, and that helped us keep things going.

“Today, entreprenuership and technology have made it such that dollar is not coming to Nigeria. They simply use one app and the Nigerian in London or Chicago who wants to solve a problem for their person here, gives dollars to somebody who is there and the naira goes to the persons here.

“Yes, it solves the problem but the Nigerian economy has not received the input of the dollar. And Central Bank helped contribute to that by some missteps they made in the last few years. So, this is a major reason why the exchange rate is tumbling.”

He, however, said Nigeria’s economic managers should tinker on how to resolve the economic crisis facing Nigeria.

“Can we fix that? It is possible. But it takes people sitting down and people trusting the character of those making decisions.”