Olusoga: Building Trust, Confidence Will Strengthen Naira, Attract FDIs
James Emejo in Abuja
The Group Managing Director, Parthian Partners, Mr. Oluseye Olusoga, has said building confidence and trust in foreign exchange administration would help to strengthen the value of the Naira as well as woe foreign investors.
He said rather than the issue of forex repatriation, investors want to see a more transparent FX regime that is rule based.
Speaking in an interview with THISDAY on the sidelines of the just concluded 28th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#28) in Abuja,
Olusoga said, “I don’t think people will want to go into the conversation of FX or that, for me it is about confidence and trust which are key to stimulating investments. If people don’t trust you, they won’t give you, their money.
“Let’s do a lot more engagement and sensitisation, a lot more engaging and explaining and as you act according to what you say and based on specific rules then money can come in.”
He pointed out that the Naira having a turbulent period was a symptom of other variables and not necessarily the actions or inactions of the monetary authorities.
Specifically, he said Nigeria needed to be a lot more productive in terms of value addition to raw materials in order to boost exports and earn foreign exchange.
According to him, “The country has not been able to generate enough revenue to meet up all its obligations in a year. We have high debt to revenue ratio which means we spend a lot of our revenues to cover debt. We have the complex issues of how to build infrastructure.
“Naturally we have to print money and borrow money to do all those things and if we are not producing and we print, the currency will devalue.”
