‘Strong Local Industries ‘ll Strengthen Naira’

The President, National Association of Micro Finance Banks (NAMB), Mr Valentine Whensu, has said the Federal Government could shore up dwindling value of the Naira by strengthening local industries.
Whensu told reporters in Abuja that strengthening the industries would make them to increase their output and make the economy less dependent on importation.
According to him, when a country consumes more than it produces there is bound to be capital flight with its attendant depreciation of the currency.
“When this happens, a lot of money is going over to foreign economies and you are reducing the strength of your own currency.
“But if we strengthen our local industries and improve on agricultural production this will make us to become an exporting nation.
“If we export our products abroad, what comes to our reserve is the foreign currency and that is one of the ways that our naira can appreciate.
”In my opinion, I want the government to strengthen our local industries through incentives; encouraging them and ensuring that they get the funds needed to produce,’’ he said.
Whensu called on the Federal Government to improve investment in the micro economic sector so that they could effective play their role in developing the nation’s economy.
According to him, it is estimated that micro economy forms 79 per cent of every economy, and a country’s economy stands to benefit immensely from potentials in this sector.
“The continuous drop in oil price in the international market is an indication that every country that is mono-economy should begin to make concerted efforts towards economic diversification.
“What we should do is to inject more funds through the micro finance banks so that micro business owners will have funds to improve their productivity.
“Let us fund that sub-sector; let us allow them have access to affordable financing; let us make things easy for them so that they can produce more.
“Let us also invest in technology, research, on ideas so that we will not depend entirely on oil,’’ Whensu stressed.