Ex-CBN director advises FG to intensify developing nation’s refineries

Dr Titus Okunronmu, a former Director, Budgetary Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has advised the Federal Government to intensify efforts to make the refineries functional in order to stop the exportation of petroleum products.

Okunronmu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Ota, Ogun, that developing the nation’s refineries would reduce the great demand for foreign exchange.

According to him, the problem the country is facing is not managing the foreign exchange, but managing the crude oil resources.

The former CBN director, however, advised the Federal Government to borrow money to develop the oil refineries.

“Why should we have to take our crude oil to countries like United States and Ghana and use the foreign exchange to buy the products back from them.

“This has been one of the factors that is making foreign exchange to be unstable as well as exerting pressure on it, ”he said.

Okunronmu also said that the urge by many Nigerians to travel abroad for one reasons or the other, including purchasing of imported goods had contributed to the wide gap between the official rate and the black market.

Okunronmu said that the foreign exchange receipts had gone down, but unfortunately the Federal Government has not been able to proffer policies that would address the problem.

He urged the Federal Government to liberalise the foreign exchange market by allowing the forces of demand and supply to determine the exchange rate.

“The forces of demand and supply are the best solution that can determine the exchange rate and stabilise it, ”he said.