A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu has said that if Nigeria doesn’t diversify its economy but continues to rely on crude oil as a mono-product economy, the Naira crisis may get worse, and not better.
Recall that since the suspension of forex sales to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators by the CBN, the value of the Naira has been on a constant fall against the Dollar, Euro and pound sterling due to forex scarcity.
At the weekend the exchange rate between the Naira and the U.S Dollar hit N570/$, against the pound sterling it stood at N770/£1, and traded at N655/€1 at the parallel market.
However, reacting to the dwindling fortune of the Naira, Moghalu, an economist, said the most important determinant of the value of the Naira is whether or not the Nigerian economy is productive and competitive in international trade.
“Since we obviously don’t have such an economy, our main FX earner is crude oil, which gives us 90 percent of our FX. Unfortunately, we don’t control the price of crude. Its pricing is volatile and unstable as a result of various international political and economic factors.
