Nigerian President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday urged Nigerians to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods as part of its strategy to strengthen the Naira further, adding that the federal government will subsequently do the same.
Ajuri Ngelale, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, who stated this on behalf of his principal while addressing state house correspondents on the ongoing plans to strengthen the naira, added the government is focusing on patronising and purchasing made-in-Nigeria goods.
Ngelale noted that Nigerians could see a significant shift in the nation’s foreign exchange market in the last few days following the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, adding that the clearing of the $7b foreign exchange debts has further assisted in easing pressures on the naira.
He said: “President Bola Tinubu wants to communicate very clearly to our people that there has never been a more important time in our history to actively agree together. That we will patronize and purchase made-in-Nigeria products across all value chains across all sectors.”
He said these are part of the policies intentionally designed to strengthen the local currency further.
” We want the spending power of our people to go up. We want every Naira and kobo we earn to be more valuable, not just here. But when we travel abroad.
“In addition to that, Mr President, beyond the appeal to Nigerians to actively and intentionally make that decision every day to patronize made-in-Nigeria products and services across the board. He also wants to ensure that Nigerians fully understand that the momentum that we are now seeing with respect to the strengthening of our currency is not going to slow down.”
He stated that the President has put in place policies, in collaboration with other agencies of government, as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria, in dealing decisively with sharp practices on specific cryptocurrency trading platforms, “dealing decisively with sharp practices within the parallel market of the foreign exchange ecosystem these things are now yielding fruit.”
He called for “active effort on the part of our people to blow the whistle wherever they see any of these sharp practices taking place, to communicate with the agencies directly that deal with these issues and understanding that this is not a government versus malign actors issue.”
Ngelale also said President Tinubu is going to ensure that our micro, small and medium-scale enterprises have what they need to get through this challenging period, which is why he has approved the Presidential conditional grant scheme in which over 1 million Nigerian businesses will be empowered with conditional grants “this is money they will not have to pay back of up to N50,000 per nano enterprise.”
Commenting on the anti-corruption fight, Ngelale said the recent increase in salaries of judicial officers in the country is part of efforts to ensure that judicial workers enjoy competitive pay rates.
“Their salaries and skills are very important for us and very strategic in the sense that we can dramatically reduce the impact that corruption has always played in the judiciary, which has an impact on not just the ability of Nigerians to get effective justice in the country, but also to ensure that businesses who we are now asking around the world to invest in Nigeria have a judicial system that they can trust with respect to any litigation that could arise from business practice in the country.
“He is also ensuring that we bring a sustainable strength to the currency so that when we talk about a new minimum wage, because many of our people have asked, you know, government officials about when the new minimum wage is coming in, those negotiations are ongoing.
“But what we do not want is a situation in which the minimum wage continues to be what it has always been in the history of our country, which is a moving goalpost.
“If we do not get a firm grip on the value of our currency and it continues to be a volatile, devaluing asset, then whatever we do with the national minimum wage is going to essentially become a moot point, nullity. And so we are focused on ensuring that, yes, we arrive at a new minimum wage that states can afford and that will deal with all of the needs of Nigerian families across the country.
“But we also want to ensure that what we peg it at is something that is sustainable over a number of years based on the long-term, you know, stability that we want to bring to the Nigerian Naira with the interventions we’re presently making.”
