The House of Representatives has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to halt any plan to further devalue the Naira.
The lawmakers, during plenary on Wednesday, noted that such move will only hurt the economy further, while also directing the nation’s apex bank to urgently put in place a policy to check further devaluation of the Naira to USD and other international legal tenders.
The lawmakers gave the directives while adopting mandate a motion on notice brought by Hon. Bamidele Salam, (PDP, Osun).
In his presentation, Salam had noted that “in February this year, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele while addressing the Bankers Committee at a summit on the economy in Lagos, informed the committee about the Naira devaluation against the USD.
“While the value of the Nigerian naira relative to the US dollar has declined by 9% in the last 6 months, the South African Rand and Ghanaian Cedi, have appreciated by 11.4% and 1%, respectively.”
According to the lawmaker, statistics obtained from relevant records show that in January 2021, the naira exchange to the US$ at about N377. By June 7th, 2021, however, it exchanged for about N411.
“Clearly, Honourable speaker, distinguished colleagues, all is not well with the naira and whatever policy is being adopted to manage it at the moment,” the lawmaker argued, while noting that the CBN has adopted multiple exchange rates since last year in a bid to avoid an outright devaluation.
