The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Benedict Oramah, has said that the choice that was made by the Nigerian government to free the market was the right decision to make as the state of Nigeria’s economy called for it.
The banking guru said this in an exclusive interview with ARISE NEWS anchor, Ojy Okpe, where he also said that the best thing to do now is to stay the course as Nigeria cannot afford to pull out of this process, as that will just “postpone the evil day.”
Oramah said that the decision that the federal government had taken to free the market as related to foreign exchange was the right thing to do, but the impact was more severe due to the fact that subsidy was removed at the same time.
The Afreximbank president noted that with the state of the economy, it was important to stabilise the economy and pursue growth policies, but both should not be done at the same time as the pursuance of growth policies will further destabilise the economy.
Oramah said, “Freeing the market is the right thing to do. And the reason we’re where we are is that something that I thought we had done before we already freed it was reintroduced. The control was reintroduced and that is what we now have to find our way out of.
“We’re doing it at a time when other things are difficult. And that’s why perhaps the impact has been more severe. Two things are happening at the same time, and all reinforce the other. We also removed the subsidy on petroleum products, and because we are importing petroleum products, now if the currency devalues, it immediately impacts the price of petroleum products, which either is borne by the person on the street or by the government that tries to subsidise it in a different way.
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