Governors express worry over high Naira exchange rate

Nigeria governors have expressed worry over the high exchange rate of Naira to other foreign currencies.

They have therefore said this and other issues would be discussed with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Thursday.

This was one of the resolutions arrived at by the governors after their meeting in Abuja on Wednesday night.

The meeting, which ended in the early hours of Thursday, was attended by majority of the governors.

Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, who is also the Governor of Zamafara State, Alhaji Abdullaziz Yari, read the communique of the meeting to journalists.

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It was gathered that Naira is being exchanged for about 243 to a dollar at parallel market.

Yari said, “We are going to discuss with Mr. President to seek lasting solutions to the worsening macroeconomic challenges confronting the nation, especially on foreign exchange stability.

“The forum pledges to work with Mr. President to ensure coherent policy actions that will create a clear policy direction for the country and stimulate domestic production.”He also said the forum discussed health issues and that the governors pledged to cooperate with the Federal Government to ensure that the National Health Act is operational.”
According to him, “Sequel to presentation made by the Country Representative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the forum agreed to aggressively support the total eradication of polio in the country.”

The NGF chairman denied the insinuations in some quarters that the money given to the states was meant to bail them out of their financial crisis.

Rather, he said what was shared was money from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited and Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, which, he said, were legitimate earnings for the three tiers of the government.

The governor said, “It is also to inform our brothers in the media that yet the federal government has not given any bailout to any of the states.

“What had been shared last time was monies from NLNG and FAAC and as we have been saying, we have not been looking for bailout, instead, we have been looking for all monies that are in the coffers of the federation account, most especially we are talking about some of the monies that are hung around the coffers of government to be brought together for the purpose of sharing.”