President Muhammadu Buhari insists he is still opposed to the devaluation of the naira despite the removal of the official peg by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He was speaking in Abuja on Monday evening at the breaking of the Ramadan fast with the business community.
Buhari has consistently spoken against devaluation, but the CBN recently removed the official peg of N197-N200/$1 after 16 months, with the national currency already exchanging for over N370 in the parallel market.
It is now N282/$1 in the official interbank market, while the parallel market rate has been coming down gradually, although it suffered a setback on Monday.
The president has maintained again that he does not see any benefit that the country can derive from devaluation.
“In August 1985 (when he was overthrown in a military coup), the naira was N1.30 to a dollar but now you need N300 or N350 to a dollar. What do we derive from that? How much benefit can we derive from this ruthless devaluation of the naira? I’m not an economist neither a businessman, I fail to appreciate the economic explanation,” he said.
“What has happenned to us now is that we have maneuvered ourselves into mono economy which led to the collapse we are seeing now.”