…warns against naira downward spiral
…use $20b diaspora excess remittance
By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara has observed that the solution to the Nigerian foreign exchange crisis is for the Federal Government to unlock and make the USD locked up in private vaults in Nigeria begin to chase the naira.
This, according to him, can only be achieved through undertaking a number of measures, among which are, the government must demand that all Nigerian exports, including crude oil be paid for in naira, just as we don’t pay for any import from any country in naira.
Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, as Guest Speaker at the Platform Nigeria On “Democracy and Free Market Economy” in commemoration of the country’s 25th years of uninterrupted democratic rule, said that government should also raise loans from Nigerians with large forex holdings by applying moral suasion.
“As we all know, Nigerians at home and abroad are said to hold substantial amount of Forex or FX in domestic and foreign domiciliary accounts, which are currently idle. For Nigeria to reach some understanding with the holders of these funds, two conditions must be met”.
“The government should be able to build trust and engender confidence in the economy, and the holders of the funds are sufficiently incentivised to act. The incentives will have to be agreed upon mutually, such that no one is compelled to disclose the source of their FX and government provides sovereign guarantees to repay on agreed terms”.
The former speaker added that government should inward remittance of funds by Nigerians in diaspora whose funds, he said, are excellent and reliable sources of funding development in several developing and emerging market economies.
“There are said to be between 5 and 15 million Nigerians in diaspora with remittances in excess of $20 billion. This is more than 80 percent of Federal Government of Nigeria’s budget. However, these funds do not go through proper channels, and CBN is unable to reap the benefits of foreign currency transfers”, Dogara lamented.
According to him, Nigeria must take an attractive value proposition to its citizens abroad to engender their confidence and attract remittance through proper channels, as government, through credible intelligence generated by the country’s security agencies, should know those individuals with idle USD stash in their private vaults.
“Such individuals should be offered the incentives, and should they fail to respond, it is my considered opinion Mr President should invoke and apply the Princess Muhammad B. Salman (MBS) solution. No one who has taken advantage of the system should have the liberty to store in access what his/her country desperately needs in order to lift millions of its people out of multi-dimentional poverty”, he faulted.
Dogara emphasized, “Mr President must be told that nothing done to afflict the comfortable in order to comfort the afflicted and heal our economy qualities as vice. Likewise, comforting those who have put our economy on a chock hold by taking unfair advantage of the system is not virtue”.
He expressed the fear that if the current downward spiral of the naira is not arrested, we may get to a point where we will have to ditch the naira altogether and Nigerians won’t bother them whether their CBN is headquartered in London, Washington, Brussels or Beijing provided their currency is strong.
Dogara concluded, “After fixing the forex or FX conundrum, the next thing is to formalize our informal sector. This is called broadening the tax net. We all know how that will impact government revenue and stimulate economic growth if the proceeds are well invested.
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