February 9, 2024
A political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, has blamed the Central Bank of Nigeria for contributing to the free fall of the naira in the foreign exchange market.
Utomi who spoke while featuring on a Channels TV programme, said that missteps of CBN over the years put the naira it is today.
The Lagos Business School founder lamented that Nigeria had depended on foreign exchange sent home by its people in the diaspora for a long time.
“Diaspora has been a significant part of the economy. They are supporting their people from there because things are not going well for most of their people.
“But you know what, that leads to an inflow of foreign exchange into the country, and that helped us keep things going,” he said.
He, however, noted that technology and entrepreneurship have changed the whole thing and made it such that the dollar is not coming to Nigeria.
According to him, the diasporans would now simply use one app and the Nigerian in London or Chicago who wants to solve a problem for their relations here, gives dollars to somebody who is there and the naira goes to the person here.
“Yes, it solves the problem, but the Nigerian economy has not received the input of the dollar. And the Central Bank helped contribute to that by some missteps they made in the last few years.
“So, this is a major reason why the exchange rate is tumbling. Can we fix that? It is possible.
“But it takes people sitting down and people trusting the character of those making decisions,” he said.
