We don’t have any immediate plan to devalue the naira - Emefiele

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,
Godwin Emefiele, says the Apex bank has no
immediate plan to devalue the Naira despite the
continued downward slide of the Naira. Emefiele
said this after the meeting of the bank's
Monetary Policy Committee yesterday January
26th.
"We don’t have any immediate plan to
devalue the naira. However, we are already
working on different scenarios; the models
are being worked on.
We have them and as much as possible, we
will look at scenarios under different crude
prices and we will continue to discuss at
management and monetary policy
committee levels. We will try as much as
possible to continue to share our thoughts
with the fiscal authorities with the view to
harmonising our positions to ensure that
notwithstanding the drop in crude prices,
that we are able to continue to run
government and do business. We are very
conscious of this and we know that we are
at an era where the drop in or low crude
price will remain for a long time with us. It
is not going to be like in 2008 or 2009
where it was just for about eight months.
So far, we have seen this for 14 months
now and there doesn’t seem to be any light
at the end of the tunnel.”he said
He said Nigerians should brace up for a longer
period of low government revenues from oil
sources due to the declining oil price
“The committee observed that the last
episode of low oil prices in 2005 lasted for
a maximum period of eight months.
However, the current episode of lower oil
prices is projected to remain over a very
long period. Consequently, it is imperative
to brace for a longer period of low
government revenues from oil sources,
which would necessitate hard and
uncomfortable choices as the economy
transits to more sustainable sources of
revenue, consistent with the economic
realities and strategic objectives of the
country. In the circumstance, certain trade-
offs must be envisaged and duly
accommodated.”