How Tinubu can smoke out FX speculators

A former spokesman of the Atiku-Okowa 2023 Presidential Campaign Council, Daniel Bwala, has suggested a radical approach President Bola Tinubu can use to smoke out speculators hoarding dollars in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Naira on Wednesday experienced a significant depreciation, reaching a record low of N1,830 per dollar in the parallel market, commonly referred to as the black market.

This marks a 7.10% decline or N130.00 weaker compared to the previous day’s closing rate of N1,700.

The continued devaluation of the Naira in the black market is compounded by a substantial surge in inflation, as reported recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for January 2024.

Similarly, the Great British Pound (GBP) stood at £1/N2210, a decline from £1/N2,120 recorded the previous day, this marks a notable decrease of 4.07% compared to the N2,120 rate recorded the previous day.

Additionally, the Naira weakened against the Euro by 2.43%, closing at N1855/EUR1 compared to N1810/EUR1 reported the previous day.

In the cryptocurrency market where forex is sold using stablecoins, the Naira also settled at N1,876.50/$1 as of 12 pm.

Bwala said Tinubu should issue an Executive Order giving a 30 days ultimatum to ban the use of dollars for trading both locally and internationally.

He urged Tinubu to take bold steps in tackling the exchange rate crisis.

Posting on X, Bwala wrote: “A more radical approach to smoking out the dollar from where ever speculators and hoarders are hiding them is for @officialABA to sign an Executive Order giving 30 days ultimatum within which the Federal Government would officially ban the use of Dollar for trade both locally and internationally, just like Egypt is taking the bold steps in that direction.”

A more radical approach to smoking out the dollar from wherever speculators and hoarders are hiding them is for @officialABAT to sign an executive order giving 30 days ultimate within which the federal government would officially ban the use of Dollar for trade both locally and…