Don't Miss

Reps to summon CBN Governor, Finance Minister on devaluation of Naira

By BusinessNews Staff on October 24, 2013

The House of Representatives has mandated its committees to invite the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, over continuous devaluation of the Naira.

The CBN governor and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy are expected to brief the committees on the measures being taken to curb the ugly trend of devaluation of the Naira.

The committees are Finance, Banking and Currency, National Planning and Economic Development and are expected report back to the House within six weeks.

The resolution followed a motion entitled: “Need to Check the Continuous Devaluation of the Naira” sponsored by Rep. Odebunmi Olusegun (ACP-Oyo), which was adopted without debate by the House.

Olusegun had, while moving the motion, said that the Naira and Kobo were introduced in 1973 with Naira as an equivalent of 10 shillings and Kobo which serves as a minor currency.

“Then, Naira was more than US dollars in value and a bit less than the United kingdom Pound Sterling,” he said.

He said that there has been a continuous decrease in the value of the Naira over the years against major currencies in the world.

“There has been a continuous decrease in the Naira value over the years against major currencies in the world and a critical look at these years, taking the US dollar as a basis for comparisons, shows that.

“Around 1990 to 1993 it was about N28 to a Dollar, around 1994 to 1996 it was about N40 to a dollar, 1996 to 1999 it was about N80 to a Dollar, around 1999 to 2007 it was about N140 to a Dollar”.

He expressed concern that if the downward trend persisted, it would affect Nigeria’s economy and the future of the country in general.

The lawmaker urged his colleagues to support the motion to check the continuous devaluation of the Naira.

The motion, which was not opposed, was referred to the relevant committees for more inputs.

Meanwhile, the House during the consideration of reports, adopted the recommendations of its committees on Justice and Aviation on the urgent need to investigate the justification and circumstances surrounding the controversial grounding of Rivers State Government-owned Bombardier B700.

The House recommended that the Rivers Government should be allowed to comply with the necessary conditions for granting of all required permits and licences.

It also recommended that the Committee on Aviation be mandated to scrutinise the reason for rampant foreign registration of aircraft by their owners.

It further recommended that the committee be mandated to also investigate all private aircraft operating in the country with a view to sanitising their operation and ensuring enforcement of the law governing their operations.

(NAN)

headline