Atiku will scrap Tinubu’s naira float policy if elected president - Kenneth Okonkwo

Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign council, says the former vice-president will not retain the Bola Tinubu administration’s naira floating exchange rate policy if elected president.

A free-floating exchange rate occurs when a government allows the exchange rate to be determined purely by market forces, with no attempt to influence its external value.

Speaking on Monday during an appearance on Democracy Today, an AIT programme, Okonkwo criticised the government’s decision to allow the naira to be largely determined by market forces.

The politician claimed that it is irresponsible for a government to leave its currency “to the vagaries of the market”.

“No country in the whole world leaves their currency undefended,” Okonkwo said.

He said the value of a country’s currency is fundamental to its economy, likening the decision to leave the naira to market forces to entrusting citizens’ security to criminals or private security agencies.

“What did you call macroeconomic policy? The whole idea of macroeconomic policy is to defend your currency, because once your currency becomes like dust, nobody is going to desire it,” he said.

“Have you forgotten when the naira was climbing almost to N2,000 per dollar? This government remembered to start defending the naira. Why wait for it to crumble?

“What makes your naira strong? When your export is more than your import, your currency starts gaining power.”

The campaign spokesperson accused the Tinubu administration of encouraging imports, citing a N34 billion import waiver.

However, when reminded that the latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed exports exceeded imports, Okonkwo dismissed the development as insufficient progress.

“Not that you made any appreciable increase. It cannot be progress because life is still unaffordable,” he said.

With the 2027 elections months away, opposition presidential candidates are beginning to make their policy positions known, outlining measures they say would improve Nigerians’ lives.

Atiku’s position differs from that of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), who has said he would retain Tinubu’s floating exchange-rate policy if elected in 2027.

Obi said he would not defend the naira but would focus on increasing productivity to make the currency more valuable to Nigerians.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced a “willing buyer, willing seller” model on June 14, 2023, as part of a major reform that unified the country’s multiple foreign exchange market segments.

The reform, introduced shortly after Tinubu assumed office, aimed to allow supply and demand to play a greater role in determining the naira’s value, while improving transparency and price discovery in the foreign exchange market.

The CBN subsequently described the move as part of efforts to eliminate distortions arising from multiple exchange-rate windows and to improve investor confidence in the foreign exchange market.

The naira depreciated sharply following the reform, with the exchange rate at the investors’ and exporters’ window closing at N770.88 kobo per dollar at the end of June 2023, compared with N460 at the end of December 2022, according to CBN data.