Vice president
Osinbajo has explained why the naira keeps crashing against the dollar leaving
many people worried.
Professor
Yemi Osinbajo, the Acting-President of Nigeria, has explained that corruption
and the vandalization of pipeline facilities in the Niger-Delta region were
responsible for the reduction in the volume of Dollar reserved with the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said such was responsible for the continuous fall of
the Naira against the dollar.
He stated
this in Port-Harcourt while chiding members of the opposition who criticize the
federal government for the fall of the Naira against the Dollar.
Osinbajo said
that Nigerians spent more money to buy Dollars because the currency was scarce
and insufficient to go round, triggering the forces of Supply and Demand into
play.
He, however,
assured that the federal government was putting measures in place to ensure
that the diversion of foreign currencies from the National Treasury through
corruption, and the vandalization of pipeline facilities that reduce the amount
of Dollars accruable to the federal government is brought to end, adding that
once the federal government is able to earn more Dollars than it is currently
earning, the exchange rate will go down.
Osinbajo
said: “Some people have said ‘Ah! When you came the exchange rate was this now
it is that.’ What accounts for exchange rates is simple. It is Dollars. If you
don’t have Dollars, your exchange rate goes up.
If you have dollars your
exchange rate goes down.
“If you lose
oil revenues through corruption and pipeline vandalism, your exchange rate goes
up. It’s very simple. If Dollar is scarce, then the Naira to buy it will be
more. That’s a simple thing.
“Exchange
rate is not magic. It is just the availability of Dollars. Once we are able to
earn the Dollars the exchange rate will go down. And we are hopeful that all of
what we are trying to put in place, and with cooperation of all of us. We’ll be
able to bring the exchange rate down.”
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