An industrialist and also avid reader of this column recently asked me if he should believe the assurances by the Governor of the Central Bank; and the just inaugurated Presidential Economic Team that naira rate of exchange will improve favourably below its current lowly official rate of about N150/$1. My answer would help the industrialist make his decision whether or not to commit to his pending import order for raw materials to feed his factory.

In August 2007, President Yar'Adua shot down the Central Bank’s proposed Strategic Agenda for the Naira (SAN) on the grounds that the Presidency was excluded from its conception. In spite of the announcement that an adhoc economic team had been constituted to reevaluate the proposal, nothing more was heard of the verdict of government’s economic experts.