President Buhari Rules Out Further Devaluation of Naira Amidst Dwindling Economy

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he opposed a further devaluation of the West African nation’s currency and endorsed the central bank’s policies that have restricted foreign-exchange trading.

“I don’t think it is healthy for us to get the naira devalued further,” Buhari said in an interview in Paris with France 24 broadcast on Wednesday. The central bank is making foreign exchange available to “essential services, industries.”

Buhari, who has yet to name a cabinet since he took office at the end of May, said markets aren’t being harmed by the delay in ministerial appointments, which will happen by the end of the month. Civil servants are running the government of Africa’s top oil producer competently, he said.

“Work is being done by technocrats, they are there and they provide the continuity,” he said according to Bloomberg

Amid a halving in oil prices in the past year, Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele reacted to the naira’s drop to a record low in February by introducing trading curbs and bans on purchases of dollars to stem the rout.

Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decided to exclude Nigeria from its local-currency emerging-market bond indexes, tracked by more than $200 billion of funds, after the restrictions prompted investor concerns about a shortage of liquidity.

The naira remained little changed at 199.05 per dollar on the interbank market at 11:42 a.m. in Lagos, the commercial capital.