The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) arm of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) has called for the adoption of Nigeria's "Naira" as the single currency for ECOWAS sub region.

NACCIMA said that for this to happen, first, the Naira should be revalued for it to be at par with the American dollar as it was in the 80s.

In a chat with Vanguard, John Isemede, NACCIMA Director General, pointed out that the much talked about economic integration has been elusive for years because the requirements for the convergence can't be met by the participating countries.

He argued for instance, "our import cultures have not allowed economic integration and taking orders from other people to run our own country. Again, how can we achieve the economic bloc? We are talking of the Common External Tariff which will take off next year; we are a sub region and not a custom union. For us to be a custom union, incentives, VAT, import duties, tariff and non-tariff must be the same thing.

Today, VAT in Nigeria is 5 percent, Benin Republic 20 percent; Ghana 17 percent and if we now have all these, why will the borders not be porous and smuggling not be booming because there is a big advantage of routing your goods through Nigeria at 5 percent. How can we achieve free movement of goods with the differences in VAT.? "

In view of this, he said "If we can develop our economy internally like what happened in the 80s, today the naira can become ECOWAS single currency. I can give you the exchange rates of the Nigerian currency for over 30 years. In 1980 what was the exchange rate? It was between 50 and 60 kobo to the U.S. Dollar. When SAP was introduced it was N4.2 to a dollar in 1986.

"So all we have to do is to work on our own Naira because in the past, people were traveling with the Naira to abroad because the Naira was more or less the single currency in West Africa. If the value of the naira today is N50 to the US$, a lot of experts in America would come back to Nigeria because the value of the currency. If you are mighty, other economies will run after you," he said.

According to him, Ghana Cedis and the CFA may not qualify for the single currency because they are overvalued and have been depreciating for almost 20 years; how can they meet the convergence?

"In fact, we cannot wait for this people because there can never be a convergence. It can't work. The CFA today is a member of the Euro because when France decided to surrender the French franc to Euro the CFA automatically became Euro; if you are doing business with francophone countries if you invoiced your goods in dollars and pounds, they may not pay you because their currency is not tied to dollar and pound. But if you invoice your goods in Euro, you get your money in jiffy because their currency that was once tied to the French franc is now tied to the Euro," he said.
http://odili.net/news/source/2014/aug/15/331.html

..

"Nigerian currency for over 30 years. In 1980 what
was the exchange rate? It was between 50 and 60
kobo to the U.S. Dollar. When SAP was introduced
it was N4.2 to a dollar in 1986".

Look what our past leaders (Northern Generals) did to my beloved country. And a general from the 80's want to rule us again. I don't like the idea of devaluing currency but do it if it's necessary..

^^
The key way to strengthen the Naira is for the manufacturing/export sector in West Africa to be competitive with other regions in the world.

Hmm... This one is very strong. Anyways, so far as it leads to an upward revaluation of the naira, I support am!

Front page access for the first time! The world doesn't sleep

Maybe they should just name the currency Ebola


In remembrance of the famous west african purge...

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Chances of having naira as the general legal tender are extremely slim and shallow.

We are watching and waiting patiently.

Interesting!

Hmmmmmm

Unified currency

Really? Ok God will see us...

Nigeria has the potential to be among the developed nations of the world but that potential is under utilized by some vested interest.

Nd would oda countries agree or accept d demand....misplaced priority....instead of dem to discuss wayzz of restructuring Nd making naira stand out....dey are busy talking nonsense

Hmmm. Thank you Jesus for today.

If it'll increase the value of our currency, then, i'm in support of it.

''fingers crossed''

ok

Tank God ooo,,,
if our currency will be valued,we must remove the #1000 note,,,nd #500 shd be d highest denominatn

Nigeria is the giant of africa,,,they must agree

hmm, is this in their power?

Not news worthy.

A unified currency with other ECOWAS countries. Of what benefit is that going to be to Nigeria? Do we necessarily have to be unequally yoked with these other countries that are likely to pull us back?

Hmm, single currency for west, soon it will be for Africa as a whole then the world!

NB Ride on guys, keep on fulfilling prophecy.

pls if it will move us forward and bring back our professionals who re in the so called FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES back to us then go ahead and do it.

LOL.

Adindupeter: "Nigerian currency for over 30 years. In 1980 what
was the exchange rate? It was between 50 and 60
kobo to the U.S. Dollar. When SAP was introduced
it was N4.2 to a dollar in 1986".

Look what our past leaders (Northern Generals) did to my beloved country. And a general from the 80's want to rule us again. I don't like the idea of devaluing currency but do it if it's necessary..

What was the exchange rate when PDP took over governance in 1999 and what is it now?

What was the pump price of Petrol when PDP took over governance in 1999, what is it now?

hahaha. O boi see short cut wey these people wan take.

That's like saying,

"Abeg why can't we just create a footpath from Brotha Musiwa's face me i face u in Okokomaiko, that automatically bursts out into Time Square"


Adopting the Naira as an ECOWAS currency isn't far-fetched, but leveling it with the USD (in actual terms) is.

I hope this will work out for the best because even some poorest countrie's currencies in the world has more value than naira. For example Jamaica, Haiti, Lesotho etc. Men what a drag. Ghana cedis is 3 to 1$.

I don't think Naira should be used, they should use a new joint currency. You expect Ghana to give up their currency? Or the illetrates of Liberia? They would say Nigeria also brought Ebola.

Adopt the naira? I laugh! NACCIMA is just trying to sound patriotic cos everyone knows that the Naira is the most unstable in the region.
Besides the Naira has the ugliest and lowest quality notes in the world. Look at 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and even 200 Naira notes, so poor in appearance and quality. The polymer notes, most especially, are nothing to write home about.

They better consider the Ghana Cedi.

Naira ko,Euro ni.

Let see if this can work out for us