Ezekwesili Seeks Public Conversation On Nigeria’s Economy

A Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has asked the Federal Government to do more in engaging the public and key stakeholders on its economic strategies.

The former Vice President of the World Bank made the call during an interview on Channels Television’s political programme, Sunday Politics.

She stated that for Nigeria to get it right, especially in walking out of recession, President Muhammadu Buhari needs to change his stand on the nation’s foreign exchange policies and focus more on issues germane to productivity.

Confusion With FX Policy

“I believe that fundamentally, there are serious issues of economic philosophy that are still very unclear. I think the government is still struggling.

“When you look at the FX (foreign exchange) policy, it is harmful to the economy and the reason that we have the FX policy we have today is simply because our President is completely sold on the idea that you can determine the nominal value of the naira to the dollar and once you can get it very low, everything will be fine.

“We now see that nominal exchange rate is not the most importance factor; it’s the productivity of your economy that matters.

“There’s not been a real public conversation on the economic strategy of the administration (and) that needs to happen.

“I think the economic team needs to try one last time to see if the President would understand that the retrogression that we have seen in the economy can be clearly traced to the confusion with the FX policy,” the former minister explained.