Naira appreciation: We’ll unleash more economic measures- Tinubu
President Bola Tinubu says his administration willunleash a number of measures to revive the economy, based on the recent appreciation of the naira.
Tinubu said that this was in line with the current appreciation in the value of the naira, due to various steps taken to curb the activities of illegal money speculators.
Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, made this known to statehouse correspondents on Friday in Abuja.
“Nigerians at large have witnessed the seismic shifts that have taken place within the nation’s foreign exchange market over the course of the last several days and the strengthening of the Nigerian Naira against the United States dollar.
“This is a time to deepen our efforts to dig in and to work harder, which is why PresidentTinubu has approved a series of interventions to ensure that we see a mass strengthening of the Nigerian Naira against all other global currencies.”
Ajuri saidthe President appealed to Nigerians to use this period to imbibe the culture of patronising and purchasing Nigerian products across all value chains.
“There is an intention that we must have on this issue: we want a strong currency; 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; the way to achieve that is by doing just this.”
Ajuri said the President demanded every Nigerian join in this effort to turn the tide against unscrupulous citizens working to undermine the economy.
He urged Nigerians to blow the whistle on any activity that is drawing the economy to the brink in order to save the country and cut the cost of governance.
Ngelale said the President would ensure that micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises in the country have what they need to get through this difficult period.
He saidthe President has approved the Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme, in which over one million Nigerian businesses would be empowered.
”This is money they will not have to pay back of up to 50,000 Naira per nano enterprise,with over one million nano enterprises being selected and granted these funds within each and every local government area of the federation.
”In addition to that, over 150 billion naira has been disbursed from the Bank of Industry and made up on single-digit interest rate loans of up to N2 million to small and medium-scale enterprises across all local government areas of the federation.”
He saidthe construction and manufacturing sectors of the economy that employed more than 1,000 Nigerians would also be given a facility to encourage them and boost employment.
”The President has approved over N75 billion to be disbursed to 75 large-scale manufacturers across all states of the federation. These are going to be manufacturers who employ over 1,000 Nigerians in each of their facilities and industries.
”We are going to ensure that they have the support that they need on a large scale, so that Nigerian families who rely on these large-scale businesses are protected.
”We want to see our large-scale industries not just refuse to fire people but actively increase and expand their hiring at this difficult time.”
He said that it was in this light of strengthening the system for better service delivery that the President approved a new remuneration for the judicial arm of government.
”This is very important 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 that 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 can arise from business practice.”
He said the appreciable value of the naira would alsohave a positive have a positive impact on the proposals for the minimum wage review coming up in April.
”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.
”We are focused on ensuring that we arrive at a new minimum wage that states can afford and that we’ll deal with all of the needs of Nigerian families across the country.
”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.”
