Naira over-valued by 10 to 20 percent, IMF mocks CBN, presidential economic team

In what can be easily interpreted as reactions to the rebuffing of its advice by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday fired back, claiming that Nigeria’s naira is over-valued by around 10 to 20 percent.

A newly released critical report on government efforts to boost growth in Nigeria, IMF said “We do find there to be some over-valuation at this point of the naira, of the official currency, somewhere to the tune of 10 to 20 percent”.

Gene Leon, IMF mission chief for Nigeria, in the report, urged Nigeria to introduce immediate changes to its exchange rate policy – characterised by central bank curbs, multiple exchange rates and an artificially high naira valuation – or risk “a disorderly exchange rate depreciation”.

IMF had advised the CBN to devalue the naira since last year, but the apex bank chose to use indigenous forex survival policy to track the almost subsiding crisis in the forex market.