Amid naira fall, reps seek ban on imported goods with local substitute

Amid frequent fall in naira, the house of representatives committee on finance, loans, and debt management, has recommended that all locally produced goods be banned from importation.

The house gave the recommendation while considering a report on the 2024-2026 medium-term expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper (MTEF/FSP).

Recall that the naira fell against the naira on Tuesday and Wednesday at both the official and parallel market.

According to the data from the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX), the country’s official exchange rate window, the Naira fell from N750.14 on Monday to N830.97 and N840.53 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Also, on the parallel market, the naira depreciated from N1,140, on Monday to N1,145 and N1160 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

To this end, the lawmakers said despite the unification of the foreign exchange market, there is still pressure on the naira.

This, the house said is “due to the lack of stable foreign reserve as a result of the lack of exports of locally produced goods”.

The lawmakers, therefore, recommended that “all items locally produced should be outrightly banned from importation and customs tariffs amended accordingly.”

Supporting the reps call, an exporter, Ikechi Okonkwo, disclosed that the fall in naira was as a result of over reliance on importation.

He, however, called for diversification of the economy, saying the refinery must also begin refining of petroleum products if we want to stem the fall in naira.

“The rise in dollar rate is telling on Nigerians because the Nigerian economy is import based. As you may know, we practically import almost everything, including toothpick and as such any time dollar rises against the naira, the effect is immediately noticed as we can see on the prices of petroleum, rice and other essential commodities,” Okonkwo said.

“President Tinubu’s economic team should initiate policies that could lead to diversification of the economy from oil. It is sad that after 60 years of independence, Nigeria fell from an agro-based economy to a nation that could barely feed its citizens.

“It is also appalling that despite the fact that the country falls among leading petroleum nations in Africa, it can’t boast of any functional refinery. All these obstacles must be overturned if we must truly become the giant of Africa.”