Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CNB), Mallam Lamido Sanusi have been summoned by the House of Representatives over the continued devaluation of the Naira.
The House of Wednesday mandated its Committees on Finance, Banking and Currency and National Planning and Economic Development to issue the summons.
This was the result of resolution of a motion brought to the House by Odebunmi Olusegun Dokun, entitled, “need to check the continuous devaluation of the naira”.
The Committee is expected to submit its report to the House within three weeks, to enable the Green Chambers take final decision on the matter.
Leading the debate on the motion, the politician lamented the depreciation of the naira, warning that if the trend continued unchecked, the nation’s economy would be in serious jeopardy in future.
“There has been a continuous decrease in the Naira value over the years against major currencies in the world. Acritical look at these last few years, taking the US Dollar as a basis for comparison shows that around 1990 to 1993, it was about N28 to a Dollar; around 1994 to 1996, it was about N40 to a Dollar; around 1996 to 1999, it was about N80 to a Dollar; around 1999 to 2007, it was about N140 to a Dollar; and around 2007 to date, it is about N158 to a Dollar”.
“This has shown that a continuous devaluation in Naira without any improvement, and if this downward trend persists, it will affect Nigeria’s economy and the future of the nation in general,” he said.
They said naira and kobo were introduced in 1973 with naira as an equivalent of (10) shillings and kobo which served as a minor currency, recalling that the naira was more than US dollars in value and a bit less than the United Kingdom pound sterling as at then.
The motion was unanimously adopted and the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal asked the afore mentioned Committees to call on relevant agencies of Government with a view to ascertaining the measures they were putting in place to curb the devaluation and report back to the House within six weeks.
The CBN recently compelled banks to buy dollars at N160.5 per dollar, in a bid to halt depreciation of the naira at the interbank foreign exchange market. This intervention forced the interbank exchange rate to N162.05 per dollar. This translated to 165 kobo appreciation for the naira.