Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described President Bola Tinubu’s floating exchange rate system as an overkill.
Atiku stated this on Sunday while listing things he would have done differently if he were the President of Nigeria.
Atiku said the explanation became necessary because Nigerians were asking him to explain what he would have done differently if he were the president.
In a post on his X handle on Sunday, the former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate in the last general election suggested that a managed-floating system would have been a preferred option.
In a lengthy statement titled “ON FOREIGN EXCHANGE REFORMS”, Atiku said: “I also made a commitment to reform the operation of the foreign exchange market. Specifically, there was a commitment to eliminate multiple exchange rate windows. The system only served to enrich opportunists, rent-seekers, middlemen, arbitrageurs, and fraudsters.
“What would I have done?
“A fixed exchange rate system was out of the question because it would not be in line with our philosophy of running an open, private sector friendly economy. On the other hand, given Nigeria’s underlying economic conditions, adopting a floating exchange rate system would be an overkill. We would have encouraged our Central Bank to adopt a gradualist approach to FX management. A managed-floating system would have been a preferred option.”
