Why CBN’s Efforts To Stop Naira Free Fall Will Continually Fail – Agbakoba

Chief Olisa Agbakoba, human rights activist and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), on Monday said the Naira will continue to experience a free fall against the dollar because Nigeria is a completely empty country where nothing is being produced.

In 2016, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) had granted an interview where he predicted that the naira will exchange for N,1000 to a dollar. Many Nigerians condemned him and then, describing him as a prophet of doom.

“The Naira is going to N1,000 to a dollar because you cannot defend it” he had said in 2016.

Today, a naira to a dollar is N920 at the parallel market while several interventions being made by the Federal Government and Central Bank of Nigeria to stabilize it has failed to yield any desired result.

Speaking on Monday, the constitutional lawyer said the only way to stop the Naira plunge  is if the country is productive while the rate of unemployment is also reduced.

“What is the rate of the naira to a dollar today? Is not moving to $1 to N,1000? So long as we are producing, then there is nothing to support the naira with. That is the problem we are having now. Nigeria is a non-productive country. That is the biggest problem”.

“If you don’t produce, then your currency will be valueless.  The only we to turn it around is what I have been saying, we need to have economic growth of at least between 6 and 10 percent yearly. We need to have infrastructure development. We need to create jobs and reduce unemployment”.

“If half of the country is unemployed, then there is no production and therefore the naira will be valueless. The bottomline is that I am not surprised that we are where we are because we are overdependent on oil”.

“People became oil traders and briefcase businessmen and there are no factories and big enterprises. So, the entire country is empty. If the entire country is empty, the result will be that whatever you call your currency will have no value like in Tanzania where bread 1 billion Zimbabwean dollars. They have not been producing anything. If you don’t produce, then your currency will have no power”.

On the interventions by the CBN to stabilise the naira, Agbakoba said  “Loan or borrowings by the government or CBN won’t work. The CBN is printing money, that is not production. If you go to the Nigerian Security and Minting Company and the CBN governor who is the chairman asks them to print money, what is the money supported by?”.

“If you print money without supporting it with production, it is not going to work. It is basic economics that if you want your currency to be strong, then you have to support it with production. A country that is producing will not have a weak currency. A strong currency depends on what you produce”.