Naira collapse: Yoruba group warns Buhari as companies may start folding up

– Yoruba group wants Buhari to check the unfavourable situation in the country

– MAN also noted that many people are likely to lose their job

– Task CBN with deletion of items from foreign exchange restriction list

President Muhammadu Buhari has been issued a stern warning by the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF) following the falling state of naira against the dollar.

The group raised an alarm over the unhealthy economic situation in the country, and also warned the president that if the falling rate of the currency is not checked urgently, millions of Nigerians are likely to lose their job.

According to Vanguard, YUF urged President Buhari to come up with plans to ensure the investors’ confidence is restored, adding that this year looks like a really challenging one for Nigeria and Nigerians especially.

Speaking through its chairman, Reverend Emmanuel Gbonigi, after a general meeting of the group held at Efunyela Hall in the Ikenne, Ogun state, the group noted that if the textile are revived, they are capable of not only restoring jobs lost in past decades, but add in no small way to the National Gross Domestic Product(GDP).

In a related development, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has yet again appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to delete some items from the foreign exchange restriction list.

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Frank Udemba, the association’s president, who spoke in Abuja on Friday, February 19, informed that some of the items it wants the CBN to delist were essential raw materials for many manufacturers across key sectors which they cannot presently source locally.

“Information reaching me from our members is that by the end of March, many of those companies will start closing shop, leading to massive job losses.

“The 41 items involve a lot of things such that when broken down into the Customs Harmonised Service (HS) Codes, you have a total of 680 products.

“Based on our analysis, 95 out of the 680 products are essential industrial raw materials for our members but cannot be sourced in this country for now,” Udemba was quoted to have said.

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Vanguard also reports that the association had tabled its concerns before the CBN, requesting for the removal of the 95 items from the list.

He said: “We are saying they should allocate Forex to our members to import those 95 items pending when local substitutes can be created for them.

“They can give us a time frame of between 18 months and two years to develop the local product capacity for the items before including them in the list.

“This will give our members and other investors time to invest in backward integration projects for those raw materials.”

The CBN had in June 2015, issued a circular to remove importers of 41 products from accessing foreign exchange at the official Forex markets, as part of measures put in place to help revive downward slide of Nigeria’s external reserves and protect local industries.

Speaking on the state of the economy, President Buhari, on February 18 said it remains the fastest growing in Africa.

While delivering a key note address at the public presentation of a book, ‘Nigerian Century’ written by Dare Babarinsa at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, Buhari noted that his administration cannot afford to fail the enormous expectations of Nigerians, who expect it to lead the country to greater heights.

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