Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, rebuked speculations of the Naira hitting N400 against the Dollar, labeling such hopes as unrealistic. Moghalu conveyed his stance through a statement on his X handle, emphasizing the necessity for the exchange rate to align with its actual market value.
Moghalu condemned the Central Bank for perpetuating artificiality to appease political interests, which, in his view, led to economic instability and provided opportunities for speculators to exploit. He stressed the urgent need for Nigeria to transition towards a value-added manufacturing export economy, emphasizing the importance of diversifying forex earnings beyond oil.
Moghalu said, “Those who want the Naira to be N400 to the $ are living in a dream world. Even discounting for the negative impact of speculative attacks on the value of the Naira, the exchange rate will (and should) reflect its market value in reality, not the artificiality that the central bank sought to maintain to please economic illiterates in political power at the time.
“That artificiality created room for massive arbitrage by speculators which bled the economy. Nigeria does not (yet) have a productive export economy. That’s the heart of the matter.
“And we do not have $100 billion in foreign reserves. So on what basis would the Naira forex rate return to some fantasy land soon? It will also take time to regain or achieve full investor confidence such as we had when we were there (and the rate was N150-165 to the $.
“The sooner we focus on a painstaking creation of value-added manufacturing export economy that earns forex beyond oil in real and significant terms, the better.
