Economy
…Warns against total sale of refineries
AS Nigeria begins foreign exchange liberalisation, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, has warned the Federal Government to be wary of speculators who could undermine the policy.
TUC at the ongoing 111th Session of the International Labour Conference, ILC, in Geneva, Switzerland, advised the government not to accept total sale of public refineries to the private sector, especially to cronies of government officials.
Addressing journalists yesterday, TUC’s President, Festus Osifo, praised President Ahmed Tinubu for the political will on the unification of FX , contending that the steps taken by the Federal government would help in rejuvenating the nations’ economy.
He said: “We have been advocating against the issue of multiple exchange rate because it’s actually killing our economy. In the last eight years, it is a single item that has affected our monetary and fiscal policy as a country. It has affected us on all ends.”
Osifo, who is also the President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, PENGASSAN, advised that for the new FX policy to succeed, there must be some fundamentals to block the speculators from having a field day.
“If by unifying the FX on a single day the exchange rate of naira to dollar jumps to N750 in the bank, then it becomes necessary for government to set some machinery in motion else in few days’ speculators will hijack it and push it to N900.
“No country in the world allows its currency to be left anyhow. Government must not allow speculators to determine what the exchange rate will be. If government does not monitor and take firm measures over the FX, speculators will take advantage of it,’’ he said.
The TUC president lamented that multiple exchange rate had made millionaires overnight, insisting that the new single FX policy should be allowed to succeed by keeping the speculators at bay.
He said: “There is no country that develops overnight. The way our currency had been managed over the years was appalling. No country develops like that where people do money tripling and take advantage of the system.
‘’We are against a situation where people make so much money overnight. We are against a situation where people make N300 to N400 gain over a dollar by crossing to another window and becoming billionaires overnight. It is not acceptable.” (Vanguard)
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Tags: Festus Osifo President Ahmed Tinubu Trade Union Congress of Nigeria TUC
