President Muhammadu Buhari today maintained that Nigeria will not devalue its currency . The naira exchanged at 367 to a dollar in Lagos on Friday .
“ Developed countries are competing among themselves and when they devalue they compete better and manufacture and export more. But we are not competing and exporting but importing everything including toothpicks . So , why should we devalue our currency ?” the President asked.
Speaking while contributing to a Presidential Panel Roundtable on Investment and Growth Opportunities at the opening session of the Africa 2016 : Business for Africa , Egypt and the World at Sharm El -Sheikh, Egypt .
President Buhari stressed that Nigeria being a mono -economy dependent on oil, and with a teeming unemployed youth population , the way out of the current slump in the global oil market , is for the administration to focus on agriculture and solid minerals development.
“ We want to be more productive and self-sufficient in food and other basic things such as clothing . For our government , we like to encourage local production and efficiency ,” Buhari said .
He added that those who have developed taste for foreign luxury goods should continue to pay for them rather than pressure government to devalue the naira .
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