Its all deeper waters for the Naira as it had reportedly exchanged at 419.25 to the dollar at the Investors and Exporters window, compared to 418.50 traded on Tuesday, representing 0.18 per cent depreciation on Wednesday.
The open indicative rate closed at ₦418.00 to the dollar on Wednesday. An exchange rate of ₦444.00 to the dollar was the highest rate recorded within the day’s trading before it settled at ₦419.25.
The Naira sold for as low as 410 to the dollar within the day’s trading.
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A total of 201.34 million dollars was traded in foreign exchange at the official Investors and Exporters window on Wednesday.
Similarly, a former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Dr Samuel Nzekwe, advised the Federal Government to embrace a long-term economic diversification plan to reduce the nation’s inflation rate.
Nzekwe gave the advice in an interview on Wednesday in Ota, Ogun, while reacting to the figure released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS had on Monday (May 16), said that the inflation rate increased from 15.9 per cent in March to 16.8 per cent in April.
He said that the federal government needs to develop a long-term plan for economic diversification to make the nation a more productive economy.
“If the federal government had done the long-term plan for economic diversification, most of the things imported from abroad would have been produced in Nigeria.
“The country is not producing enough goods for consumption. So, we depend on importing into the country and the provision of dollars to do this is inadequate,”Nzekwe said.
He, however, described the development as external volatility as naira to dollar for importation were very high, noting that this contributed to the current inflation figure in the country.
Nzekwe appealed to the federal government to redouble its efforts in providing a conducive environment for the productive sector to produce more goods. This, he noted, would help to reduce the continuous inflation rate.
According to him, when the productive sector produces more goods, there will be more goods for local consumption and some of the goods will also be exported.
He also said that the productive sector would also generate more revenue for the country and help the currency to be stable. He suggested that the Federal Government should also trim down its recurrent expenditures so that the cost of running the governance could be drastically reduced.
Nzekwe urged the government to also provide an enabling environment for the digital economy to thrive for more economic activities that could bring down the high inflation rate. The ex-ANAN president added that the government should block all leakages through which money goes into individual pockets in the form of corruption.
