President Tinubu urged Nigerians to support locally-made goods and services to bolster the recent improvement in the Naira’s performance in the foreign exchange market. Despite the Naira’s previous decline due to a currency floatation policy, it has shown resilience against the UD Dollars, closing at 1,382/$ on Thursday. While acknowledging this progress, Tinubu emphasized the need for sustained efforts and encouraged citizens to report any currency manipulation. Presidential Spokesperson Ajure Ngelale reiterated the administration’s commitment to ensuring a strong Naira to benefit Nigeria workers, particularly with the upcoming minimum wage adjustment.
“He said: ” I’m certain that everyone seated here and indeed 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 Nigeria Naira against the United States Dollar. This is clearly the direction all of us have wanted to head and we are very sober to the fact that this is no time to rest or clap, this is a time to deepen our efforts to dig in and to work harder, which is why His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has approved a series of interventions to ensure that we see a mass strengthening of the Nigerian Naira against all other global currencies.
“One, President Bola Tinubu, wants to communicate very clearly to our people that there has never been a more important time in our history to actively agree together that we will patronize and purchase made in Nigeria products across all value chains, across all sectors. There is an internationality that we must have on this issue that 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.
“In addition to that, His Excellency Mr. President beyond the appeal to Nigerians to actively and intentionally make that decision everyday to patronize made-in-Nigeria products and services, across the board, he is also wanting to ensure that Nigerians fully understand that the momentum that we are now seeing, with respect to the strengthening of our currency, is not going to slow down. The efforts that Mr. President has put in place, in collaboration with other agencies of government, as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria , in dealing decisively with sharp practices within platforms, dealing decisively with sharp practices within the parallel market of the foreign exchange ecosystem, that these things are now yielding fruit.
What we now will need to see is an active effort on the part of our people to blow the whistle wherever they see any of these sharp practices taking place, to communicate with the agencies that deal with these issues directly and understanding that this is not a government versus malign actors issue and the activities of these actors negatively impact everybody seated in this room and everybody watching this broadcast and all Nigerians, both at home and abroad. So all of us have to take up the mantle and agree that we will collaborate togethe to deal with thses issues.
“He is also ensuring that we bring a sustainable strength to the currency so that when we talk about a new minimum wage, because many of our people have asked, you know government officials about when the new minimum wage is coming in, those negotiations are ongoing. But what we do not want is a situation in which the minimum wage 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, nullity. And so we are focused on ensuring that yes, we arrive at a new deal with all of the needs of Nigerian families across the country.
“But 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 Nigeria Naira with the interventions we’re presently making.
President Tinubu recently imposed a three-mont ban on public funded foreign trips for ministers, agency heads, and officials to cut costs and ensure they prioritize their duties for better service.