Expert: Tackling Exchange Rate Will Revitalise Economy, Reduce Inflation

Sunday Ehigiator

Economic expert and GMD/CEO of Confederated Facilitators Limited (CFL) Group, Lai Omotola, has identified the country’s exchange rate as the primary obstacle to economic growth, stating that resolving the issue will have a cascading effect on other economic challenges, and also reduce headline inflation in the country.

He made the statement during a media briefing held over the weekend in commemoration of CFL Group’s 26th anniversary.

According to him, Nigerian economy has just one problem, and if that one problem is fixed, every other thing will fall in line. And that is the problem with our exchange rate.

“You can imagine if today our exchange rate is N500 to $1, petrol will immediately come down to N500. You don’t need any economist to tell you that.

“Remember last year when I spoke about the exchange rate, which went viral, and warned to CBN Governor? From that last year to today, the dollar has gone to N1,800.

“I keep telling the CBN governor that you are just doing cosmetics.  This is not the major thing. People cannot be speculating on our currency as a means of survival as a business.

“Do you know that today in Nigeria, people sell brand new notes as a means of business?  If you want N100,000 worth of brand-new notes, they will ask you to pay N20,000 on top as a means of business.

“It’s the same thing they do to dollar, and as long as that continues, we can’t be raping our currency and talking about reforms. Our main problem is to bring our currency back to the right price.

“If the CBN governor can close all loopholes, the right value of the Naira to dollar should not be above N350. Once it’s there, everything in this nation will come down. Including inflation, interest rate, and the like will all come down,” Omotola said.

Omotola proposed a 10-year plan focusing on agriculture, medicine, education, and infrastructure, with constitutional backing to ensure continuity across governments.

He also recommended the scrapping of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), and the establishment of ‘The Nigerian Energy Company to take care of all the country’s energy concerns.

According to him, “NNPC should not just be about petrol. It should be called Nigeria Energy Company. This means they will give us electricity, petrol, and alternative energy. It should be an energy company, not this one that they are cascading into DISCOS.

“The reason why DISCOs are increasing bands is because they are owing banks money. That’s just it. They are paying for their excessive interest rate. And they don’t even have capacity.”