CBN says no plan to devalue naira

COMFORT EKELEME

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that there is no plan to devalue the naira, even with the current external reserves at 38 billion dollars and crude oil price above 60 dollars per barrel.

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this while answering questions at the end of the first Monetary Policy Committee MPC meeting of 2020, said the reserve level and crude oil price were good enough to sustain obligations in the economy.

He however cautioned against rising public debt to revenue and called on the government to explore other ways of funding the budget rather than being comfortable with the argument of debt to GDP ratio being low.

Emefiele argued that the decision to maintain other monetary parameters and increase the cash reserve ratio from 22.5% to 27.5% was informed by excess liquidity in the system and the need to mop up the figure said to be around N12bn.

He remained upbeat that the CBN’s growth projection of 2.35% for 2020 was realisable given sustained stability in the exchange market, credit flow to the private sector, investment in agriculture and effective implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

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