We Have The Resources To Help Nigeria’s Economy, Bank Of America Tells Tinubu

The Bank of America has told President Bola Tinubu that the forex required to propel the Nigerian economy is in the hands of Nigerians.

The team that met with the President on Tuesday also advised him to tap into the savings in other to finance its projects.

This was part of the deliberations reached during the meeting with the representatives from the BOA led by the President International of Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Bernard Mensah; Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, Mrs. Yvonne Ike Fasinro, and Head of Investment Banking Sub -Saharan Africa, Mr. Chuba Ezenwa.

Speaking for the BOA, Mensah hailed the initial steps taken by the president in his first month in office.

Mensah said, “I think we are excited with the new government and some of the early decisions that they have taken. We really are looking to see how we can help. How we can partner. We have a lot of global resources that we think we can help with the Nigerian economy.

“So, we are excited about the initial directives of the government. We think we can help think through the market, we can help think through the financial architecture and structure. We can also help think through things like technology applications. We can think about the whole global debate around climate and how we can bring resources so that Nigeria can take its seat in the globe on these issues.”

Wale Edun who is the Special Adviser in charge of Monetary Policy revealed some of the highlights of the conversation saying that the BOA tasked the Tinubu administration to prioritise technology as a tool for development.

According to Edun, the BOA team pledged to support the Nigerian government with liquidity.

He said, “The head of banking of BOA, Mr Bernard Mensah congratulated Mr president and pointed out what they felt so far in terms of policy steps, in terms of fiscal and monetary policies were highly commendable and he was there to lend support.

“And he said that more important than money, he emphasized technology. From cross-country experience, looking across the world, one of the biggest drivers of change, improvement, and development has been technology.

“And of course, the biggest companies in this world are technology companies. The likes of Apple and Microsoft. Ultimately, the team from Bank of America pointed out that they felt that the financing and the liquidity that we require even in foreign exchange that a lot of it is actually in the hands of Nigerians. And that Nigerian’s savings are enough to continue to propel the Nigerian economy and make it grow, increase employment and reduce poverty.

“So, those are interesting concepts which we will go and study. Of course, we too have our own ideas but it is good to have the best institutions, the best brains in the world working on issues of the Nigerian economy.”

The Nigerian government has removed fuel subsidies which cost the country over N400bn monthly and as well harmonized the foreign exchange window into the Investors’ & Exporters’ Forex window.

The naira trades around N770 per dollar which the BOA raised the alarm that the currency was undervalued after the floating of the naira. BOA said the currency is undervalued by 13 per cent.

Last week, the currency traded as high as N801 to the dollar.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the bank’s sub-Saharan Africa Economist of BOA, Tatonga Rusike, expressed fears that Nigeria’s inflation may hit 30 per cent.

According to her, the CBN may need to increase interest rates by at least 700 basis points before the end of 2023 to curb inflation.