Pressure On Naira: Experts decry overreliance on foreign goods

Financial Experts have attributed the high pressure on naira, resulting in its value nose-diving against major currencies to over reliance on foreign goods by Nigerians.

The Chief Executive Officer, Wyoming Capital & Partners, Tajudeen Olayinka, in a chat with journalists in Lagos, said Nigerians penchant for foreign goods and education contributed to the fall in naira’s value. According to him, improved standard of education, quality locally made goods, and patronage of made in Nigeria products will strengthen the naira.

“We also import raw materials even though that helps the economy, but we import everything into this country, because we tend not to be producing quality goods.”

Speaking on proclivity for foreign education, Olayinka said: “It is not the main factor, but it’s a contributing factor though some beneficiaries will return money back to Nigeria through Diaspora remittances.

A Bureau De Change (BDC) Operator, Saidu Abdulrahman, said recent demands for Forex also come from parents with children in foreign universities wanting to pay school fees.

A staff of a new generation bank in Lagos, Ben Adanogu, said due to the high demands banks cannot meet all Forex requests by customers.

According to him, CBN had announced that international school fees and upkeep requests through Form A will be processed within 120 days.

“Parents who can’t wait for banks to process their request see the parallel market as an alternative to meeting their FX needs.”