The Deputy spokesman for the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Yemi Cardoso, to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor, Godwin Emefiele.
The lawmaker gave the advice when elder statesman and former Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, paid a courtesy visit to his office, according to a statement on Tuesday.
Agbese lamented that Cardoso and his team are allegedly making the same mistakes Emefiele made that crippled the economy and left the nation on the brink of collapse.
The naira, on Monday, exchanged for around 1,200 per dollar in the official market.
The currency was pushed to its latest record after the apex bank lifted the restriction on the 43 items prohibited from accessing foreign exchange from the official foreign exchange windows.
Reacting to the development, the lawmaker said the recent spike in the exchange rate of the dollar showed the new CBN leadership may be toeing Emefiele’s path.
He described the lifting of the restrictions as ‘putting the cart before the horse’.
“The recent spike in the exchange rate of the dollar is a clear indication that the new CBN leadership has gotten things wrong from the start.
“The freefall of the naira in the unofficial market has been exacerbated by the removal of currency restrictions on the official market. These restrictions had previously propped up the naira’s value.
“The lifting of the ban on the importation of some items at a time when our import is already high and local companies struggling to survive has shown that we are far from the end of the troubles at the moment.
“One would expect the CBN to increase the number of the items so that local production for domestic consumption will be increased and impact positively on the economy. You can see how the dollar rate is rising. What it means is that all those who used to go to the parallel market for dollars are now going to the government to demand it.
“The CBN wanted to close the gap between the official and the black market to discourage round-tripping, but do they have the capacity to fund the dollar demand? They don’t have it. So, it is a cheap and lazy way of managing the monetary policy of the country so that people will say the government is working.
“But the truth of the matter is that the business proposition is not valid, the CBN did not interact with the stakeholders. This policy will make Nigeria lose all the gains that we may have made as a result of the ban.
“Lifting this ban without a response from fiscal policy, not by increasing tariff on these items, but by deploying non-tariff measures such as levies, may expose the local manufacturers of these products to undue competition from foreign producers whose governments provide various production subsidies.”
Agbese, therefore, advised Cardoso and his team to get their acts together.
