President Muhammadu Buhari says he is opposed to a
further weakening of the naira, and has endorsed the Central Bank’s
policy of restricting foreign-exchange trading.
“I don’t think it is healthy for us to get the naira devalued,” Buhari said in an interview in Paris with France 24, broadcast yesterday.
The Central Bank is providing ample foreign exchange to “essential services, industries,” he said.
The unqualified presidential backing of the policy of
Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, is bound to dampen the clamour by
analysts and portfolio managers for a further weakening of the currency
of Africa’s largest oil producer.
After a halving of oil prices in the past year, the
Central Bank of Nigeria reacted to the naira’s drop to a record low in
February by extending trading curbs and introducing bans on purchases of
dollars by certain importers.
