CBN dollar incentive may not save naira from current slide – Dons

A professor of economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sheriffdeen Tella, said, “It wont have any major impact on Diaspora remittances.

“The first thing is that the amount (N5) is too small to attract those living abroad to start sending money home.  Don’t forget that these people also have their plans.

“Secondly, it may not be able to save the naira from the current slide. The reason is that production is picking up now and most of production needs foreign inputs. So, people will spend dollars to do more imports. Also, we have not been able tackle illicit financial flows.”

Similarly, the Chairman of Foundation for Economic Research and Training, Prof Akpan Ekpo, said the new scheme introduced by the CBN was aimed at tackling dollar scarcity in the country by encouraging the inflow of the greenback.

Ekpo, a former director-general of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, said, “I think it is just to encourage the inflow of dollars so that they can reduce the amount of naira needed to buy the dollar. Now, the naira has depreciated officially to 410/$1; it is about 480/$1 in the black market. That gap is still wide; so, the CBN is trying to narrow the gap.

“The only way we can boost forex supply is to diversify the economy – build a complex industrial economy where we earn forex outside of oil. That is the only way we can boost forex supply, not the way we are going.”

But he said while the impact of the CBN policy on the Nigerian economy would be marginal, it would not save the naira from sliding down further.

– Punch