Following the floating of the naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday, the official rate of the currency fell to N755.
The recent ‘huge’ policy change has been a topical issue in Nigeria’s monetary discourse with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, at different times, urged the country’s apex bank to allow the deregulation policy.
During a monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting in January 2019, suspended Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele warned that floating the naira would be disastrous to the nation’s economy.
Emeefiele while reacting to calls for the floating of the naira compared such action to going back to the “era of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)”.
“The MPC reviewed it and concluded that it would be wrong. It is as good as saying that we should go back to the era of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in Nigeria,” he said.
“The implication can better be imagined. It will certainly lead to capital flight, lead to massive depreciation or devaluation of the currency and ultimately to currency crisis in Nigeria and I think we should all know that it is a road to perdition to ever go in that direction.”
