Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has stated devaluation of the naira will harm the local economy and insisted it is not an option in the current economic realities in the country.
Osinbajo maintained that devaluation offers no solution as far as President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was concerned.
This is even as he has stated that the current foreign exchange restriction was a temporary measure to ensure that “we don’t deplete our foreign exchange substantially,” at a time when the prices of oil in the international market are dropping.
The vice president added that the restriction was also to bring some stability to the country’s foreign reserves without which Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), might be affected.
The vice president stated this in separate audience with Ambassador of Italy, Mr. Fulvio Rustico and the Canadian High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr. Perry John Calderwood among other callers in his office at the Presidential Villa.
“I don’t agree on devaluation and it is not that I am doctrinaire about it.
"In the first place, it is not a solution- we are not exporting significantly. And the way things are, devaluation will not help the local economy.
“What we need to do is to start spending more on the economy and then, things will ease up a bit,” he stated.
He stated the issues around the economy are not sciences, stressing that what is important is to be reasonably flexible in dealing with them.
He disclosed the Federal Government’s plans to set-up a $25 billion Infrastructural Fund that would be sourced from local and international sources including the Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund and the pension fund among others.