15th April, 2017
A don, Dr Uche Uwaleke, on Saturday advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to float the naira until the export base of the country would be sufficiently diversified.
Uwaleke, the Head of Banking and Finance Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, gave the advice on telephone.
“As long as the source of this foreign exchange remains chiefly oil, the apex bank should continue to ignore calls to float the naira,’’ he said.
Flotation of the nation’s currency with oil as the major source of foreign exchange would not be beneficial.
He hailed CBN’s recent rules on forex which resulted in improved access to foreign exchange `especially for invisibles’.
“Sustained interventions lately, made possible by accretion in foreign reserves, have resulted in improved supply to the extent that, in some cases, banks are unable to take up all that is offered to the market by the CBN,” Uwaleke noted.
He also said that the CBN’s directive regarding opening of offices at airports and the use of dedicated teller points by commercial banks had contributed to improve access to forex.