The Naira will not come down to N423/$ since what makes the Naira go up is not fully under the control of banks and the CBN HQ. The warehouses and factories (modern and old types) need to wake you, boosting exports to help Naira. Without them running, Naira will continue to underperform despite any financial engineering in CBN.  Yet, recent policy by CBN will help the Naira to stabilize despite any short-term spike.

The Bankers Committee of Bank Chief Executive Officers, headed by the Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, has assured Nigerians that the exchange rate will drop to around N423 to a dollar. The Committee of Bank CEOs addressed the media on Thursday following the halt in the sales of forex to Bureau De Change operators by the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Addressing the question on the sharp spike which saw the dollar hit N523, the Chief Executive Officer of Guarantee Holding (GTCo), Segun Agbaje said: “What we saw in the market yesterday and today is an aberration. “The rate will come down. Very soon, you will buy at N423 or N425 at most.”

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Comment #1: The stability of the Naira is neither determined by the beauty of banking hall nor the opulence of the office of the CEO nor by their speeches, but by the wheels of manufactured products engineered for exports to earn $$$.

In fact prior to July 2004, Bank Executives were among the least trusted because Banks ‘dey fold like paper’. It took the radical 13-Point agenda of Prof. Charles Soludo as CBN Governor that forced Bank’s to raise their capitalization from $15 Million to $200 Million in 2004, it is this decision that changed the image of Nigerian Banks and their growth path.

Having watched a video recently about the Nigerian FOREX business and the Registration process with CBN, it is very clear that what is happening in that space is synonymous to the Nigerian Fuel Subsidy Scam where Companies are just registered with CAC and the Owners of the Company only owns briefcase ? and that’s it, you start trading. Yes, 5000 people are applying monthly to become BDC Operators, and you can operate it virtually from any corner of the world.

CBN just cut ?? off the pipeline and now handed it over to a “very few”. For as long as companies and individuals are not exporting goods and services to earn in $$$, nothing much will happen.

Comment #2 : No, naira can come down to N423 if we want, the same way it accelerated above N500 with no economic fundamentals, it was all staged.

That argument of demand and supply is very weak in naira management, because no evidence has shown that inflating the exchange rate improves supply, so all we do is to increase poverty without actually taming the quest for more dollars, it doesn’t make sense.

If our dollar inflow is $500 million per week, it cannot magically become $800 just because we exchanged naira for N500, we simply overvalued dollar, not minding that dollar has been losing value as well.

Yes, we have limited dollar supply, so let’s deploy it on things that are critical to our continuous existence, many of the things we waste dollars on will find their level locally, once the dollars dry up. People have been profiting from selling panic and fear, let’s face the demons this time and swim and sink, Nigerian spirit is stronger than this artificial dollar scarcity shenanigan.

The factories and warehouses will rise, nobody thought majority of Nigerians would embrace consumption of local rice, same happened with local juices; if people see opportunities opening up in these sectors, we will put this dollar mystery behind us.

I still have clarity on how we can make local shoe brands talk of the town in Nigeria, it’s not rocket science, and our people will love it.

I am with bankers committee on this one.

By Q4 2022, Central Bank of Nigeria will Exchange Dollars Directly with Nigerians and Companies via e-Naira Digital Currency

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United States lawmakers are stalling a proposed sale of attack helicopters to Nigeria amid mounting concerns about the Nigerian government’s human rights record as its military grapples with multiple security crises at once, Foreign Policy magazine reports.

The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have delayed clearing a proposed sale of 12 AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters and accompanying defense systems to the Nigerian military, pausing a deal worth some $875 million, according to U.S. officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter.

The behind-the-scenes controversy over the proposed arms sale illustrates a broader debate among Washington policymakers over how to balance national security with human rights objectives.

The hold on the sale also showcases how powerful U.S. lawmakers want to push the Biden administration to rethink U.S. relations with Africa’s most populous country amid overarching concerns that Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, is drifting toward authoritarianism as his government is besieged by multiple security challenges, including jihadist insurgency.

Nigeria is on the front lines in the battle against Boko Haram, one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups, and plays a role in U.S. and international efforts to roll back extremist groups in the Sahel region of West Africa.

But Western governments and international human rights organizations have ramped up their criticisms of the Nigerian government, particularly in the wake of its ban on Twitter, systemic corruption issues, and the Nigerian military’s role in deadly crackdowns on protesters after widespread demonstrations against police brutality last year.

Sen. Bob Menendez, the chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for a “fundamental rethink of the framework of our overall engagement” with Nigeria during a Senate hearing with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June.

Both Menendez and Sen. Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have placed a hold on the proposed arms sale, according to multiple U.S. officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter, who spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity.

The details on the proposed sale were first sent by the U.S. State Department to Congress in January before then-former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, according to officials familiar with the matter.

In addition to the helicopters, the proposed sale included 28 helicopter engines produced by GE Aviation, 14 military-grade aircraft navigation systems made by Honeywell, and 2,000 advanced precision kill weapon systems—laser-guided rocket munitions, according to information sent by the State Department to Congress and reviewed by Foreign Policy.

Nigeria has relied on U.S. arms sales in the past to help address multiple security challenges: the 12-year insurgency by Boko Haram militants in the country’s northeast, a spate of high-profile kidnapping-for-ransom campaigns targeting schoolchildren in the country’s northwest, and deadly clashes between the country’s semi-nomadic herders and farmers fueled by climate change and environmental degradation of the country’s arable land.

The State Department describes the U.S.-Nigeria relationship as “among the most important in sub-Saharan Africa” and has provided limited funding for various military training and education programs.

Some experts said the United States should hit the pause button on major defense sales until it makes a broader assessment of the extent to which corruption and mismanagement hobble the Nigerian military and whether the military is doing enough to minimize civilian casualties in its campaign against Boko Haram and other violent insurrectionists.

“There doesn’t have to be a reason why we don’t provide weapons or equipment to the Nigerian military,” said Judd Devermont, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. “But it has to be done with an assessment of how it will, one, change the direction of conflict in Nigeria, and, two, that they will use it consistent with our laws. In both cases, it’s either a question mark or a fail.”

“There is a culture of impunity that exists around abuses by the military,” said Anietie Ewang, the Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Ewang cited the Nigerian military’s killing of unarmed protesters at Lekki toll gate in Lagos during the country’s massive #EndSARS demonstrations against police corruption and brutality last year as well as cases documented by human rights organizations of abuses in the military’s campaign against Boko Haram.

“I’m sure it’s a difficult situation. There are so many conflicts springing up across the country now,” Ewang said. “The authorities, I presume, are trying to do the best they can to save lives and property. But this must be done in accordance with human rights standards. You can’t throw one out just to be able to achieve the other.”

In the past, under former President, Barrack Obama’s administration, the US had halted arms sales to Nigeria over concern about the prevalence of human rights abuse resulting in many civilian casualties. But the strained relationship seems to have been mended with former President Trump.

Recall that the former U.S. President, Donald Trump’s administration agreed to sell 12 A-29 Super Tucano warplanes to Nigeria, resuscitating a proposed sale the Obama administration froze after the Nigerian Air Force bombed a refugee camp in January 2017. The first batch of those planes arrived in Nigeria earlier this month.

There has been increase in complaints of human right abuse involving the Nigerian Army since 2015, when more than 400 members of the Shiite group, and over 200 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were massacred by soldiers. US Congress’ decision to halt the proposed arms sales to Nigeria means that the Nigerian Army professional conduct has become internationally worrisome.