Tinubu: Let’s buy Nigerian goods to strengthen Naira

• says high employing manufacturers will get govt support

President Bola Tinubu has asked Nigerians to patronize locally produced goods in order to strengthen the value of the naira and reduce hardship in the country.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who stated Tinubu’s position during a press briefing on Friday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also assured that measures to firm up the nation’s currency, which he observed, had started to yield results, would be sustained.

“I’m certain that everyone seated here and indeed Nigerians at large have witnessed the seismic shifts that have taken place within the nation’s foreign exchange market over the course of the last several days and the strengthening of the Nigerian naira against the United States dollar.

“This is clearly the direction all of us have wanted to head. And we are very sober to the fact that this is no time to rest or to clap. This is a time to deepen our efforts to dig in and to work harder, which is why His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has approved a series of interventions to ensure that we see a mass strengthening of the Nigerian  naira against all other global currencies.

“One, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants to communicate very clearly to our people, that there has never been a more important time in our history to actively agree together that we will patronize and purchase made in Nigeria products across all value chains across all sectors.

“There is an intentionality that we must have on this issue that we want a strong currency, we want the spending power of our people to go up. We want every naira and kobo we earn to be more valuable not just here. But when we travel abroad, the way to achieve that is by doing just this.

“In addition to that, His Excellency Mr. President beyond the appeal to Nigerians to actively and intentionally make that decision every day to patronize made in Nigeria products and services across the board, he is also wanting to ensure that Nigerians fully understand that the momentum that we are now seeing with respect to the strengthening of our currency is not going to slow down.

“The efforts that Mr. President has put in place with collaboration with other agencies of government, as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria, in dealing decisively with sharp practices on certain cryptocurrency trading platforms, dealing decisively with sharp practices within the parallel market of the foreign exchange ecosystem that these things are now yielding fruit,” he said.

The special adviser to the president on media and publicity assured that Tinubu is intent on increasing the spending power of the people and dealing with the issue of minimum wage.

He explained: “So, the momentum of the Nigerian naira and its strengthening. Nigerians should expect that to continue. Yes, we understand that there’s still going to be volatility to some extent, but we are seeing a lessening impact of that volatility and as we move forward with the interventions Mr. President is making in the foreign exchange market and will continue to make we will see increasing stability.

“And the last point we want to emphasize is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu while he’s dealing decisively with the issue of the spending power of every naira and kobo that Nigerians are earning today.

“He is also ensuring that we bring a sustainable strength to the currency so that when we talk about a new minimum wage, because many of our people have asked, you know government officials about when the new minimum wage is coming in, those negotiations are ongoing.

“But, what we do not want is a situation in which the minimum wage continues to be what it has always been in the history of our country, which is a moving goalpost.

“If we do not get a firm grip on the value of our currency and it continues to be a volatile, devaluing asset, then whatever we do with the national minimum wage is going to essentially become a moot point, nullity.

“And so we are focused on ensuring that yes, we arrive at a new minimum wage that states can afford, and that will deal with all of the needs of Nigerian families across the country.

“But we also want to ensure that what we peg it at is something that is sustainable over a number of years based on the long term, you know, stability that we want to bring to the Nigerian naira with the interventions we’re presently making.