The uncertainty around who wins the forthcoming presidential vote in Nigeria is not essentially different from the one around whether any of the top three contenders have definite, elaborate plans to fix the country’s problematic foreign exchange system.
As their manifestos show, the plans of the All Progressive Congress (APC), the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for foreign exchange management are at best a muddle of promises with no clear roadmap to achieve them.
Africa’s biggest democracy will be choosing a new leader on 25 February. Last year, its currency ranked among the world’s worst-performing, outdoing only Ghana’s cedi and Sri Lanka’s rupee.
Naira’s black market rate, the basis of that verdict, had fallen by 37 per cent as of that date compared to only 4 per cent for the official rate.
The parallel market is the most accessible market in the country for those seeking forex, even though the government has labelled it…
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