The CEO of Nigeria’s most efficient bank, GTB’s Segun Agbaje has called for the devaluation of the Naira. The CEO made this remark during a conference call with investors on its most recently released results.
According to Mr Agbaje
“There’s only one way the currency can go…. as a country, we have to make the difficult decision. At the current oil price and with what’s happening in the world, we’ll have to deal with some measure of devaluation.” A devaluation of about 10 percent against the dollar would be enough for the naira to settle”
Mr Agbaje is basing his support for a devaluation on the back of persistent decline in crude oil prices which have spooked foreign investors and prompted them to exit naira-denominated assets.
What he however was not captured within the context of all of this is the fact that the bank made N6.5 billion in Foreign Exchange Gain in the first half of this year along up 565% from same period last year. The bank also recorded a N7.5billion in capital appreciation of its FX reserves.
GT Bank is not the only Nigerian bank that has made money of Forex. Zenith for example made N5.3billion in the first half of this year on Forex and N2.5b on revaluation gain. Access Bank also posted N7.9b on Forex gains.
