SAN FRANCISCO, May 31, (THEWILL) – Isaac Okoroafor, the acting Director, Corporate Communications, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that the apex bank resisted suggestions to float the Naira when the country was battling with economic recession.
Speaking at the Capital Chapter Congress/Dinner of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), FCT chapter, in on a lecture titled, ‘Managing Public Confidence in a Period of Economic Challenge -The Role of Public Relations’, the CBN spokesman said the bank was vindicated afterwards for rejecting the suggestion.
“Several people both local and international made the suggestions that we float the Naira but we said no,” he said.
“We resisted the option because we felt it was a wrong option and dangerous to the economy and we are very happy we proved them wrong.
“We believe we succeeded and what are doing now in to consolidate on the successes and address our failures.
“You do not have to wait until there is a crisis before you begin to engage; during periods of normalcy, you need to engage people; make sure you supply people with information prior to the crisis because the crisis will come one day.
“Once you engage people steadily, and crisis comes, they will be on your side because they already know the crisis will come.
“If you create a level of confidence with your stakeholders, especially the media, they will readily defend you when there is crisis.”
Okoroafor said there was need for Nigeria to begin to add value to the goods it exported in order to strengthen the Naira saying if Nigeria remained a nation of consumers – taking from other countries and hampering local production, the Naira would continue to be weak.
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