The Labour Party’s presidential candidate in last year’s general election, Peter Obi, has advised government agencies arresting Bureaux de Change operators to desist because they are not the problem of the naira fall or dollar rise.
Obi said in his X handle yesterday that the action is primitive and goes to show a poor understanding of the problems.
In a statement issued by the chief spokesman of the defunct Obi-Datti campaign organisation, Dr Yunusa Tanko, the LP leader said: “The recent reported attacks and disruption of the business activities of Bureaux de Change (BDCs) operators in different urban centres across the country by government agencies are ill-advised and wrongly directed.
“Rather than solve the problem, the action will further escalate and worsen the exchange rate situation in the country. The BDCs are not the primary suppliers of forex nor do they create demand. They only provide a market to sellers and buyers of foreign currency.
They are part and parcel of every economy and can be found even in the developed economies of the world. To think that the BDCs are the cause of the declining value of the Naira is a smack on rational economic thinking.”
According to the former Anambra State governor, the only way to shore up the value of the Nigerian currency is to move the country from consumption to production, especially export-led production, and fight corruption, which allows unproductive money to pursue the available supply of foreign currency.
“As long as Nigeria remains an unproductive economy and corruption continues unfettered with people in possession of unproductive excess cash, the value of our currency will continue to depreciate.
“It’s important, therefore, that government authorities properly understand the workings of a modern economy and channel their efforts accordingly, and stop ridiculing the nation in the eyes of global economies,” he said.
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