A professor of economics, AbdulGafar Ijaiya, has advised the federal government to bypass the US dollar in its international trade transactions to save the economy from its over-reliance on the green back.
He said such a decision is capable of bailing the nation out of its present economic predicament.
Ijaiya who teaches economics at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Kwara State, gave the advice during an interview with LEADERSHIP.
While noting that Nigerian leaders can no longer blame the hardship being experienced by Nigerians on the exchange rate due to the nation’s over-reliance on the US dollar, Ijaiya suggested that the country should bypass the US dollar since the majority of its international trade transactions are done with China and other Asian countries.
He said, “You cannot continue to blame the exchange rate. Nigeria has been turned into a US dollar economy, so, we’re at the mercy of the US Dollar and the question is, why continue to rely on the US dollar while more than 90 percent of what we import into this country comes from Asian countries.
“Since more than 70 percent of our imports come from China, why not bypass the US dollar. Do we have to go through the dollar market before we change our money to Chinese Yuan before buying things from China?
“Now, some Muslims are preparing to go to Makkah, the National Pilgrims Board has said Muslims should begin to pay part of the money as a down payment and a deadline has been given to pay almost N5m. Can’t we bypass the US dollar and go straight to Saudi Riyal?”
Ijaiya blamed the lack of political will and commitment of the leaders for current situation where the dollar dictates the prices of goods and services in Nigeeia. He maintained that Nigeria can take cue from other countries who are already doing it.
“Bypassing the US dollar is possible, other countries are doing it. During the Buhari administration, there was an arrangement for a currency swap with China but the political will and commitment to implement it was not there probably because America stood against it.
“The leadership of the country needs to have that strong political and independent mind to make decisions just like other countries have done in recent times.
“Just a month or two ago, Saudi Arabia and China had a bilateral currency swap agreement worth about $ 6 billion to bypass the US dollar. The United States could not do anything about it.
“When we are removing subsidies from petrol, Kenya did the same thing, there were demonstrations in Kenya and before you know it, the Kenyan President approached the Saudi Arabian Government to accept their Kenyan shillings for payment for petrol. That solves the problem of a hike in petroleum prices in Kenya.
“The newly formed international body called BRICS, – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are now trading amongst themselves bypassing the US dollar; Egypt has joined as well as other African countries. Nigeria is yet to join BRICS. The last time members of this organization met in South Africa, Nigeria, represented by our Vice President, went there as an observer. And you call us the giant of Africa,” Ijaiya added.
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