National Issues
Without economic stability, FX management cannot succeed, Labour Party’s Kenneth Okonkwo tells CBN
Okonkwo added that in light of recent increases in electricity tariffs, high diesel prices, and currency volatility, the government, led by the All Progressives Congress (APC), has imposed macroeconomic volatility on industries.
Chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Kenneth Okonkwo, has taken issue with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for its handling of the foreign exchange market, claiming that any management of the currency that does not result in economic stability is incompetent.
This was said by Okonkwo in a Friday interview with Channels Television.
He said, “I do not think the CBN understands what it is doing.
The worst-case scenario for the naira’s collapse is when manufacturers are impacted by forex management.
“The success of the forex management is in its ability to ensure stability and sustenance, not whether it is high or low. The greatest threat to the economy is uncertainty,” he said.
The former spokesperson for the Obi-Datti presidential campaign asserts that the CBN’s responsibility is to maintain macroeconomic sustainability.
Okonkwo added that in light of recent increases in electricity tariffs, high diesel prices, and currency volatility, the government, led by the All Progressives Congress (APC), has imposed macroeconomic volatility on industries.
According to Okonkwo, Band A Nigerians are being penalised by the government for receiving greater hours of power supply.
“Some people living in rich neighbourhoods are not rich,” he remarked. He continued by saying that several Nigerians reside in the Band A neighbourhoods’ boys’ quarters.
On the other side, Okonkwo claimed that Nigerians are starting to realise that they hold political power and that they are starting to make choices that would determine their own fate.
According to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the inflation for March 2024 was largely driven by increase in food such as garri, millet, yam, bread coupled with energy and housing costs.
However, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, on Tuesday, said the Nigerian economy is moving in the right direction as policies of the new administration has started slowing down food inflation.
