Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Confederated Facilitators Limited Group of companies
“The Buhari government spent N1.7 trillion on agriculture, and a bag of rice is still around N45,000 to N60,000 in Nigeria. He argued that when there is a gap of over N300 in the exchange rate, speculators would make a huge return once they can get foreign exchange from the bank, even at the detriment of the nation’s economic development.
“And it’s a matter of demand and supply. Anything in life, if today more people are looking for a particular substance than what is available, the price of the substance would go up. It is fundamental economics.”“That’s the issue of demand and supply. So when you now allow the Naira to float, when you don’t have enough dollars, guess those with the dollar. It’s with the market cabals
“And the cabals are the ones that have the $100 million. So they will only release $50 million into the economy. Now, when you release $50 million, demand for the dollar will become much higher, and the supply will become lower, thereby influencing and increasing the price of the dollar to Naira. CBN cannot intervene because there is no dollar.
“In 25 years, we have set up about 27 companies in different sectors of the economy. But I must tell you that a World Bank report says the lifespan of a Nigerian company is five years. We have sustained 25 years. We’ve seen all the crises. We’ve seen the financial crisis, inflation, COVID-19 and now the subsidy crisis. It has been very challenging.