PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
Leaders of United States of America, France, Switzerland and others have already indicated interest to meet with President Bola Tinubu on the unification of the Naira exchange rate and the domiciliary account restrictions removal.
The indication to this effect was given on the sidelines of the ongoing New Global Financial Pact Summit at Palais Brongniart, Paris, France.
The summit which is holding from June 22 to 23 with President Tinubu attending, is expected to unlock the huge potential for investment, create jobs and capital flows, thereby enhancing investor confidence in the economy.
Mr Dele Alake, the Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, disclosed this to newsmen after President Tinubu received comprehensive briefing from members of his delegation ahead of his participation at a New Global Financing Pact Summit on Wednesday.
On May 29, 2023, Tinubu had in his inauguration address criticised the Central Bank of Nigeria on its monetary policies which he said required “thorough house-cleaning”.
“That is the essence of this meeting and is a global summit and there are several heads of state of developed societies that Mr. President’s policies in the last three weeks really have encouraged these foreign nations and investors to become more interested in the affairs of Nigeria in shoring up the economy of Nigeria.
“So a lot of them are quite interested so many of them have even indicated interest to meet with Mr. President in this trip. Just upstairs now. We were having a meeting with the president structuring some of these meetings with heads of state.
“At the last count about three, four different heads of state of developed countries have indicated willingness to meet with him, have a chat with him and explore areas of cooperation, on the economy, on agriculture, on other areas that are salient to the development of Nigeria’s economy. That is generally the essence of this meeting,” Alake said.
Persecondnews recalls that following the suspension of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele by Tinubu, the apex bank on June 14 announced the unification of all windows of the foreign exchange market.
On the essence of the summit, Alake said: “The essence of this trip is to network as much as feasible, and as much as is practicable. The President wants to network with international finance corporations and institutions, countries that are well healed that would facilitate or that could facilitate direct foreign investment into Nigeria.
“Don’t forget that Mr. President has taken some very bold steps in the area of economy, in the area of social engineering in the last few weeks, and particularly with reference to the unification of the multiple exchange rates, which has caused very positive multiplier effect.
“However, in the short term, we have noticed and expected that there will be a slight spike in the demand and then that would affect the value of the Naira viz-viz the dollar.
“So apart from the immediate, short and long term positive effects of that unification policy, there could be a need for an injection of direct foreign exchange into the economy to shore up the value of the naira while market forces stabilize. In the short run or medium term, there is going to be when the effects of this policy begin to mature.
“For instance, you can now spend your money in your domiciliary account. The domiciliary account restrictions have been liberalized. So there’s no more restriction. Once there’s money in your account, you can spend it anywhere in the world.
“Now that is going to build confidence in the foreign exchange system of Nigeria, which means people abroad can begin to bring in their money into the economy, even those at home, who have hoarded their dollars for fear of restrictions and all that will now be more encouraged to bring the dollars into the financial system.
“However, with all of these, you still need a direct foreign injection of foreign exchange to build or complement the domestic policies.”
On the countries that have shown interest in having a pact with Nigeria, Alake said a number of them including the US, France, Switzerland and one or two others have indicated interest.
“There are so many institutions, international financial institutions that are also willing to see him. Some of them we are structuring either for tomorrow or Friday to meet with him and his team, and then consolidate some of the issues and provide more encouraging rhetorics for those people to come in and invest in Nigeria.
“Don’t forget that in the recent past, a lot of international investors exited Nigeria, because of the restrictive currency policies that we had, which made business to be so stifled.
“But now that these are being liberalized, and they are freed to market forces and in the short run, we will need very comprehensive and robust direct foreign investments into the country.
“So we are very, very hopeful that some of these meetings will come to fruition and will bear very positive fruits and yield results for Nigeria,” the presidential adviser said.
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