President Muhammadu Buhari said, on Wednesday, in an interview with France 24, that he did not think the country’s currency, the naira, should be devalued again.
“I don’t think it is healthy for us to have the naira devalued further. That’s why we are getting the central bank to make modifications in terms of making foreign exchange available to essential services, industries, spare parts, essential raw materials and so on — but things like toothpicks and rice, Nigeria can produce enough of those,” Buhari said.
Nigeria’s central bank has imposed progressively tighter restrictions on access to foreign exchange in an effort to prop up the naira, which has been sliding since the slump in global crude prices last year.
In June, it restricted access to foreign exchange for the import of 41 items ranging from rice and toothpicks to steel products and glass.(Tribune)
